Ground Zero
by Renaerys
Summary: They both survived Uchiha Sasuke, and now they're hunting him. Deidara wants to kill him, Karin wants to save him. Each seeing opportunity in the other, they call a truce until they can find their target. Or kill each other in the process. Whichever comes first.


Ground Zero  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.  
Rating: M  
World: AU Deidara survived the fight against Sasuke. This branches off after Karin's capture by Konoha. **No fourth war.  
**Notes: DeiKarin with some SasuKarin on the side. I'm assuming Deidara's nature affinities are Earth, Fire, and Explosion for the purposes of this fic. I'm also having some fun with Karin's various abilities, which were not explored enough in canon as of the writing of this piece. She may not be a formally trained kunoichi like the other girls in the series, but she is still shinobi and worthy of being on Taka, worthy of the title of "strongest kunoichi" in Sasuke's eyes, so I suspect there is a whole lot more to what she can do than the manga has shown us to date. I hope to show some of that here. Enjoy!

* * *

"_I've got thick skin and an elastic heart, but your blade might be too sharp.  
I'm like a rubberband until you pull too hard. Yeah, I may snap and I move fast,  
But you won't see me fall apart 'cause I've got an elastic heart."_

* * *

If there was one thing Karin had learned living in Sound, it was to run at the green light and never look back. Now, as she dashed through the treetops on the outskirts of Konoha, she ignored her racing heart and concentrated on putting distance between herself and that musty prison cell in which Morino Ibiki had confined her.

It had been too easy to slip away from him. It was almost offensive how disarming she was by virtue of her gender and youthful face. All it had taken was a good show of mental anguish and a few goo-goo eyes at a picture of Sasuke for the guards to deem her a silly teenage girl with a crush. No real threat.

_Fools._

Knocking them out had been child's play. They hadn't even dreamed she might break out on her own. Perhaps they thought she'd wait for someone to rescue her. The thought made Karin snort in amusement. As if she had the time to wait around for some sissy boy in a frilly outfit wielding nothing but empty platitudes of Love and Honor and Justice. If she wanted something done right, Karin had long since discovered that she had to do it herself.

And besides, there was no way anyone would come for her. The only person who would have bothered had tried to kill her the last time she'd seen him. Karin gritted her teeth. Somehow, she had to find Sasuke. Despite having raised his sword against her, Karin knew he hadn't been in his right mind when he did it. It was like he became someone else, a ghost lost to the light. She'd started noticing it sometime after the botched fight against the Hachibi Jinchuuriki, and it only became worse at the debauched Kage Summit. It was like watching him drown in a frozen lake under a sheet of unbreakable ice, and when he'd finally gone under he'd done the one thing Karin knew he would never have abided were he himself. Destroyed by grief and anger, she'd almost let herself believe there was no coming back from that, not even for the boy who was the strongest of them all.

But she couldn't give up on him, not yet. She had to confirm it. There was no way the boy who'd saved her and the boy who'd sacrificed her were one in the same. And if they were, then she would see it with her own eyes so she could be sure. Now, as she raced through the canopy as fast as she could, she devised a plan for how she'd go about accomplishing that goal. The most logical answer was to find Juugo and Suigetsu. Together, they would be strong enough to locate Sasuke and perhaps fend him off long enough to smack some sense into him. The only problem was that Karin had no idea where Juugo and Suigetsu were. Certainly nowhere near the Fire Country given that her senses couldn't detect them within this country or the next one over. Perhaps they were still in the Land of Iron, but she had no way of knowing for sure.

So far Karin had detected no pursuit, but that didn't mean Konoha wouldn't give chase. She had to get away before that happened. Alone, she was no match for a team of elite, armed shinobi. Everyone in Taka had a role to play, and Karin's was support and recon. While she excelled at things like healing, strategy, and tracking, she was not as skilled in direct combat. As a shinobi she could wield a kunai as well as the next guy, but she was no genius in the art. It was even more reason to find Juugo and Suigetsu as soon as possible. As a team, they could do anything. Alone...

She didn't want to think about that option.

There was one fly in the ointment, and that was the journey to find Juugo and Suigetsu. Between here and there, she was alone and vulnerable with no way to defend herself should she encounter a team of Konoha Jōnin or worse, Sound forces. Her only option was to stay hidden and take her time, but time was precious. Karin wanted to break something. This was _all _Sasuke's fault. When she saw him again, she would give him a piece of her mind, and maybe her fist, too. Definitely her fist. Both fists, perhaps.

Lost in thought, she didn't notice the masked chakra signatures fast approaching until they were only several miles behind her. Karin nearly stumbled over a tree branch when she felt them. They hid their presences perfectly, but no one was invisible to the Mind's Eye of the Kagura. Four of them. Karin swore under her breath and began thinking up a strategy. Losing them would be optimal. It would be easier if she could find a human settlement, but with nothing to see in all directions except thick forest, she wasn't sure how viable that option would be.

So she sped up. Karin had always possessed incredible stamina. She was usually the last one standing after Taka engaged in a fight even when she had to heal Sasuke. She didn't question this fortune, but it would serve her well now.

Two hours and thirty miles passed, and the shinobi tailing her were gaining. She wasn't tired, but they outpaced her with years of experience. There was no town or other shelter in sight. They were likely a team from Konoha, more than mere Jōnin if they were this good, and if they caught her...

_Think. You're good at that._

Still, they gained on her and Karin was beginning to panic. She never panicked. She'd also never been in enemy territory alone with no insurance or backup plan. Just as she was starting to think of negotiation strategies in the worst-case scenario should the Leaf catch her, another chakra signature popped up on her radar. It was alone and unmoving, and it was enormous despite its perfect concealment. She had no time and no options. This was probably not a good idea, but it was marginally better than the alternative, which would welcome her back to cold, cast-iron chains and lewd commentary from her jailers. And Karin was no coward, besides. Decided, she shifted her course and weaved through the trees toward the lone chakra signature.

* * *

For someone as infamous as Uchiha Sasuke, the guy sure was difficult to pin down. Deidara had been all over the western continent in search of the younger Uchiha once he was well enough to travel. Having survived his own ultimate art, Deidara woke up in the care of a small clinic in a rural town on the border of Earth Country. The nurses had told him he'd been comatose for some weeks, and in that time they treated his grievous wounds with medicine and time. Wanting no trouble (or witnesses), Deidara had slipped away in the middle of the night and burned the place down while the clinicians slept inside. While it pained him to resort to petty arson when he could have blown the place sky high, it wouldn't do to leave a trail. Either way, the fewer witness to tell of his visit the better.

It hadn't been long after that he'd heard Sasuke hadn't died in their fight. Furious over this ultimate dismissal of his artistic genius, Deidara vowed that this time he would turn Sasuke into a bomb instead of himself. That should convince the brat that Deidara was right all along. The fact that no one had come looking for him told him that Akatsuki presumed him dead, or at least not worth the effort for now. Perfect. This was more important than Pein's specious ideals of world peace. As far as Deidara was concerned, if he never heard from Akatsuki again it was all the better.

Still, it would be best not to _announce_ his presence. His old partner, Tobi, was rumored to be in charge now, and Deidara had nearly killed the bartender who let that slip. Tobi...

_...Or should I say, Madara._

Uchiha scum no matter where he turned. It shouldn't have surprised Deidara. Sasori was right about almost everything. Why should this have been any different? Now that Tobi was showing his true colors, caution and anonymity would be Deidara's greatest allies in his hunt for Sasuke. It sucked big time. Caution and anonymity had never been friends to Deidara, but he knew how to make nice when the occasion called for it. Some would even call him a _charmer_ until he lost his temper.

Departing Earth Country, Deidara began searching the countryside on foot, loathe to attract attention atop his signature clay bird transports. It wasn't long before he learned of Itachi's defeat at Sasuke's hands. He wound up breaking his glass and spilling whiskey on his pants when he heard that one.

"Nah, you're shittin' me. There's no _way _that little runt beat Itachi, yeah."

The bartender he'd been talking to quietly got him a new glass, wary of his patron's temper and thinking better of asking. "No sir. Das what dey sayin'. Is old news."

Deidara had not been able to form words for a good while as he processed that. The Great Uchiha Itachi cut down by the very person he'd made it his goal to antagonize and torture. Deidara was almost upset by this turn of events. _He'd _wanted a shot at Itachi, after all, but it seemed that that would be impossible now. Now that Itachi was dead, and Deidara was still alive.

"Hah! Serves him right, that fuckin' prick."

Deidara had survived Sasuke, but Itachi had not. It was suspicious, knowing Itachi's strength as well as he did. How had that little shit stain taken out one of the strongest shinobi Deidara had ever known? Itachi was even stronger than Sasori had been. Objectively, it was a little disappointing. But what was done was done. Itachi was dead, and Deidara was glad for it. One less Uchiha blight on the world. He lifted his fresh whiskey glass.

"Here's to you, Itachi. Finally got the kick in the teeth you deserved all along."

With the elder Uchiha gone, all that was left was the younger and more annoying brother. Sasuke was no picnic to track, as it turned out. Deidara had already been through Earth and Wind, as well as some lesser, non-shinobi countries surrounding them, and he'd picked up not even a whiff of the last Uchiha. He was making his way east now through rural northern Fire Country. He wanted to attract as little unnecessary attention to himself as possible, so avoiding the Hidden Villages was an absolute must.

Travel on foot was tiresome and slow going compared to flying, and it put him in a mood. Deidara stopped for a water break and to stretch out under a thick copse. His blue, short-sleeved coat rose just above his calves as he reached for the sky and yawned. The brown and navy long-sleeved shinobi outfit underneath concealed all manner of weapons and the like, but he traveled light. Weapons weren't his forte, and he carried fewer than the average shinobi. The big guns were amorphous and white—explosive clay packed in heavy pouches at his hips and thighs.

Through his fingers he could see sunlight diffusing through the canopy overhead. It cast warmth on his exposed cheek. He missed the sky, the feeling of having the world at his feet, a canvas for his art. Sighing, he pushed the thought away.

Someone was coming.

He heard them approaching from the southeast, and he cracked his knuckles as his palms chewed up explosive clay just in case. Fire Country was vast, but Konoha's ANBU had an annoying habit of patrolling the place day and night, like they had nothing better to do with their lives. No wonder the Uchiha brothers wanted out. A place with so many rules was hell on earth.

One could imagine Deidara's surprise when not an ANBU, but an escaped prisoner burst through the treetops and landed several feet in front of him. Not just any prisoner—a teenage _girl_. Deidara made a face, speechless.

"They're coming—" she began, but cut herself off.

In the course of about half a second, Deidara put the pieces together and so did she. She was that girl Sasuke had with him all the time, the sensor Pein had warned Itachi about when Sasuke was hunting him.

"_Take care, Itachi. Her powers are on par with Zetsu's. It's only a matter of time before she finds you."_

She wasn't with Sasuke now, though. Deidara grinned, pleased with the absurdity of the situation. _What a hilarious joke._

"Deidara," she said, red eyes narrowing as she brought her hands up before her in a defensive gesture.

His grin widened. "Karin, right? Oh ho, this is a fun little twist. _What _are the odds, huh?"

Karin hesitated only a moment before lowering her hands and approaching. Deidara stopped smiling at this unexpected turn of events. He held out a hand to her, palm flat, and the tongue there spat out a lump of explosive clay: a warning.

"We don't have time for this. I've got four ANBU on my tail, twenty seconds out."

Deidara peered left and right, and sure enough he could make out the faint sounds of an approach from the same direction Karin had come. He gave her a once-over. "Not my problem, yeah."

"It will be when they see you. You're more of a threat than I am."

He couldn't argue with her there. Before he could say anything, though, Karin darted forward and grabbed his wrist, spinning him so that they were back-to-back.

"They just split up. They're coming from all sides. How fast can you take them out?" she said.

Deidara blinked. Today was getting _really _interesting. He chuckled, now itching for a little fun. "Hold your breath."

He could almost feel her roll her eyes, but he wasn't arrogant, he was just accurate. The ANBU, however, did not show themselves.

"Identify yourself!" one shouted from the left.

Deidara flung a bomb in the direction of the voice, and the tiny bird fluttered among the trees. It exploded with a sound disproportionate to its small stature. Behind him, Karin shifted. Shouts echoed for a moment before dying down. Smoke rose from the thicket to the left where a small fire had broken out. Deidara strained his hearing.

"Three o'clock!" Karin hissed.

Deidara reacted without thinking. Not a split second later, he caught a kunai mere inches from his right temple—_his _three o'clock, not Karin's, he marveled. Blood trickled from the joints in his fingers where he'd gripped the blade, salty on his palm's tongue. He elbowed Karin in the back and handed her the kunai.

"Where are they?" he whispered, all traces of amusement gone.

"I thought I was supposed to be holding my breath," she said, accepting the kunai and brandishing it before her.

"I've got somethin' a little different in mind, yeah."

"Stand down," a hidden Leaf ANBU said. "You're outnumbered."

"Not for _long_," Deidara sang.

In the distraction, one of the ANBU ran into view and launched an elemental attack. Deidara didn't take the time to appreciate the fact that it looked like a giant tree root was careening toward him. He pulled a fist back and punched the air just before the tree root could strike him, and a wave of energy pierced the growth. Veins of explosive chakra snaked through the tree root, setting off a chain of miniature explosions and decimating the enemy attack. Deidara's energy detonated just as the ANBU understood the threat and tried to jump to safety.

"Weirdo," Deidara said.

"Fire," Karin said. "Deidara!"

"Where?"

He turned to see three ANBU (he must have missed one with his initial bomb) all flying through identical hand seals. "Shit."

"Here it comes!"

Deidara was way ahead of her and channeling his chakra. The earth around them rumbled and cracked, and Karin pressed herself closer to his back. Deidara ignored her as he raised the earth around them, walls on all sides. They barely passed above his line of sight when the three ANBU spewed jets of molten fire their way. Karin yanked him to the ground by the collar, but not before the end of his topknot singed and the acrid smell of burning hair permeated the small enclosure. Deidara began to sweat under the heat of the ANBU's combined fire techniques superheating the walls of his rock chamber. But his earth element techniques were S-class; they could withstand a little flash fire.

"They're not stopping," Karin said, searching for Deidara's gaze. "They're going to roast us."

Deidara was already busy molding more clay. "Trying to _concentrate_ here."

"Concentrate _faster_, damnit. I'm not going to die here with _you_."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you never to rush foreplay?"

Karin shot him a dirty look that he may have found amusing in a different situation, but right now she had a point. He finished his technique and stood up, Karin following suit.

"What is that?" she asked, wiping bangs damp with sweat and dirt from her brow.

Deidara didn't answer. The column of clay in his hands began to glow, and she could make out thin outlines in its faces. Little birds as thin as paper peeled away from the surface in layers and swarmed just overhead. There were hundreds of them, like buzzing flies. Karin crouched a bit lower, swatting above her head to keep them away.

"Wouldn't do that if I were you, Red."

"Red?"

Karin didn't finish her thought before Deidara brought his hands up and the thin birds swarmed up and out of the rock chamber, flying in all perceivable directions. The fires didn't stop, but Deidara was no longer preoccupied with them.

"Ready, aim, _fire_!"

The world went up in flames.

* * *

Karin felt the fleeting urge to roll her eyes at this new pathetic attempt to be a smartass, but Deidara's attack was anything but pathetic. She followed his chakra with her mind's eye as it expanded in all directions like tiny pinpricks of orange light, condensed, until he gave the command. Their energy coiled, volatile, and leaked into the atmosphere in the form of liquid fire. If she strained her hearing, she could make out the ANBU's panic just before the ensuing cacophony of explosions, one after the other, for a full three minutes. At some point Karin covered her ears, but Deidara remained standing with his arms raised to the sky at the heart of it all, rejoicing as the world burned to ash all around them.

The heat was getting to her, and Karin coughed. Not heat, _smoke_. She removed her glasses and rubbed her stinging eyes. "Deidara," she said between coughs.

He didn't answer, but the earth rumbled in response. The thick rock walls receded back to the earth in charred crumbles. Karin stood up straight and adjusted her glasses. The place was a wasteland. Save for their pristine patch of grass ensconced within Deidara's walls, the forest for as far as Karin could see was a smoking, burning mess. Small fires flickered in random bushes, and the sun shone brighter with nothing to blot it out. The canopy was obliterated. Cinders simmered at her feet. Swallowing, Karin searched for her impromptu partner.

Deidara had his eyes closed as he breathed deep and finally let his hands fall to his sides. Even dirty and sweat slicked, he looked at peace among the ashes, at the epicenter of total ruin. Karin shivered, feeling a twinge of fear for the first time since Sasuke had let her fall and looked down on her with those cold, empty eyes—

Karin shook her head, dispelling the thought. Now was not the time.

"Aaahhh _hah_!" Deidara said. "That was just what I needed."

Karin did a quick sweep of the area, but she detected no discernible signs of life. Nothing would have survived an incendiary bomb of this magnitude. Her thoughts wandered back to a time when she'd believed Deidara to be dead. Sasuke had recounted the details of his battle with the blond bomber and how he didn't win at all; Deidara had blown himself up in the end, and Sasuke barely escaped the blast.

"_You survived, which means it was your victory," _Karin had said.

"_No, that was no victory. That... I don't know what that was." _Sasuke couldn't look at her as he admitted the truth that day.

Deidara molding and enlarging a clay bird big enough to mount drew Karin back to the present.

"Hey, where are you going?" she demanded.

She stepped out of the preserved grass onto the smoking ashes surrounding it without a second thought, her focus on Deidara.

"Uh, I'm leaving, duh. And someone willuh seen that blast, so flyin's the fastest option, yeah."

He attempted to mount his creation as though to prove his point, but Karin grabbed his ankle. Faster than the eye could see, Deidara hauled her up by the collar and pinned her against the side of the bird hard enough to hurt. A lot.

"Don't get me wrong, Red. It's been real. But the fun's over."

Karin ignored the stabbing ache in her shoulder as he pinned her, and she resisted the urge to spit in his face, though he deserved it. "Listen, I can help you."

He laughed. "That's _rich_. What makes you think I need your help? You're with that runt, Sasuke, yeah."

Karin racked her brain for something, anything. _Need_. He said _need_.

"You're up to something, but it's not working out for you, is it?"

Deidara stopped smiling and Karin swallowed. She wasn't afraid of him, but a part of her told her she should be.

"Clever. I guess you'd have to be for Sasuke to keep you around." He made a face. "Or maybe not."

And then it clicked. "You hate him," Karin said. It was so obvious that she could hardly believe she hadn't picked up on it before. "You're looking for him, aren't you? You want revenge."

"Revenge? No, no you don't _get _it. Just like _he _doesn't get it. You people, you're blind. But I'll make him see, just wait." Deidara gestured with the hand that wasn't pinning Karin. "This time, I'll make him see the worth of my art, yeah."

_He's insane_, Karin thought. _Batshit crazy._

And he was determined.

"But you haven't found Sasuke," Karin said, understanding. "That's why you're on your own here. You're not even wearing the Akatsuki coat. You survived...and now you want to finish what you started."

Deidara sneered and released her. "Y'know, that's kind of annoying how you just figure shit out. But don't let _me _stop you. I'm outta here, yeah."

He mounted his bird again, and Karin grabbed at his ankle again. This time, Deidara was ready for that and kicked her hand away.

"Stop that before I decide to kill you, too."

"Will you just listen for a minute? I can help you find Sasuke. I'm looking for him, too, but I can't—"

"Newsflash: I don't care."

The bird flapped its wings and rose in the air, kicking up debris in its tailwind. Karin shielded her eyes from the worst of it. He was gone in a matter of seconds, leaving her behind among the ashes.

Karin coughed and wiped her mouth, only now noticing that she still had the kunai Deidara had given her earlier. She faced north in the direction Deidara had flown away and took a calming breath, extending her senses. His chakra trailed behind him in orange sun flares, dancing on the wind in his wake. Karin had no idea where Juugo and Suigetsu were, and any journey to search for them was long and likely fraught with unpleasant consequences. She couldn't risk it. But Deidara was close by and traceable. And he was strong.

She examined her surroundings, dead and putrid. The kunai in her hand was heavy but comforting. She made her decision.

Karin held her kunai fast in her fist and ran in pursuit of the fading sun.

* * *

Two days later, Deidara sat at the last booth in the back of a seedy bar in the rogue territory northeast of the Fire Country. He hadn't flown too far for fear of discovery, so as soon as he was out of bounds of the typical sensor's range, he continued on foot. Unless Karin could run as fast as twenty men, she would never find him at this rate. Not that he expected her to come after him. If she was half as clever as she made herself out to be during their fight, then she would be smart to stay clear of Deidara. He had no time for little girls on the run.

Thinking about her reminded him of Sasuke, and he lost his appetite. Deidara sighed and ran a hand through his bangs. He never thought he could abhor someone as much as he had Itachi, but here he was. Those Uchiha were all the same. For all their ocular gifts, they were the blindest of fools. And the worst part was that they didn't get it. They thought they were right, so high and mighty just because they were born gifted. Deidara's mood soured and he swished his whiskey.

"Damn Uchihas. They're the worst."

"They have their moments."

Deidara took a sip of his whiskey, nice and slow. He didn't look up until he'd set his drink back down and leaned back in his booth. "Sounds like _someone's _been drinkin' the Kool-Aid, yeah."

Karin towered over him. She had a kunai to his throat, and he was tempted to swallow hard just to see if she'd cut him. From the look in her eyes, she just might.

"Y'know, when I told you not to rush the foreplay, I didn't exactly have this in mind." He peered at her and, sure enough, she faltered just a bit. Deidara grabbed her wrist and forced her to lower the kunai. "But I'm an open-minded kinda guy."

Karin scowled and yanked her hand away, pocketing the kunai. She slid into the opposite booth and crossed her arms, watching him like a hawk. Deidara tried not to roll his eyes at her sour behavior.

_Hey, better her than me._

Ignoring the thought, he waved down the bartender and ordered another drink. Karin still hadn't said anything, and she remained silent until the bartender brought them two new whiskeys, which she examined with no small degree of suspicion. Deidara had no such reservations as he pulled his closer.

"You left in quite the hurry," Karin said, changing the subject. "I didn't get to finish explaining my offer."

"Maybe you didn't get the message last time, Red. _Not interested_."

"What if I told you I can track Sasuke's precise location?"

Deidara hesitated, and it was his undoing. He scowled at the satisfied smirk on her face.

"So you _are_ after him."

"What's it to you, anyway? Aren't you s'posed to be his ally or somethin'?" As soon as he said it, Deidara realized what had been bothering him about Karin since he'd set eyes on her in Fire Country. "Hey, why aren't you with him, anyway?"

It was Karin's turn to hesitate, and Deidara jumped on it.

"Did you have a falling out or somethin'? What happened, you got caught and he never bothered to come find you?"

Karin narrowed her eyes. "That's not what happened."

Her anger only fueled Deidara's interest. There had always been something about the suffering of others that had captivated him. "Or maybe he just got bored'n abandoned you. Couldn't fight off Konoha alone, huh? That why you're here sniffin' around me? 'Cause you're useless without any help—"

Karin threw her kunai at his face. He dodged just in time, but she'd managed to nick his cheek and blood trickled down his jawline. He licked at it with his tongue, his visible eye never leaving her.

"Fuck you," Karin said, teeth bared in a snarl.

Deidara reached behind him and pulled the kunai out of the seat cushion. Old cotton stuffing bulged from the new rip in the material, speckled red with Deidara's blood.

"That's _not_ very nice," he said, leveling her with glare too calm for someone whose life had just been threatened.

Karin hid it well, but the way her eyes shifted and she bit the inside of her cheek gave her anxiety away. _Fear_. Deidara had always found life too short not to be in a good mood most of the time, but sometimes there was this _thing _inside that needed out. It had this effect on others, even hard bitches like Karin. Deidara hadn't spent so many years with Sasori not to learn how to flay the soul with a single look and choice words.

Still, she recovered quickly and steeled her expression. He had to give her credit. Kunai in hand, he leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head, content to ignore the blood drying on his cheek.

"You got five seconds, yeah."

Karin eyed the blood on his cheek but said nothing of it. She swallowed hard. "You and I have a mutual goal: we both want to find Sasuke. My proposition is simple. I'll track him, and you get us there in one piece."

Deidara stared at her a moment, but when it looked like she'd said her piece he burst out laughing. She glared at him over the rims of her glasses as he tried to contain himself.

"Oh man, you're _serious_? And they call _me _crazy. Shit, man."

"I don't care what they call you. Do we have a deal?"

This chick really needed to lighten up. Deidara took a swig of his whiskey and twirled Karin's bloody kunai around a finger.

"Why should I help you? I'm doin' just fine on my own. 'Sides, why should I believe you can find Sasuke when no one else can?"

Everywhere Deidara went, no one had heard wind of or seen Uchiha Sasuke. The guy was a ghost despite his crimes and infamy. It was fucking annoying.

"I found you, didn't I?" Karin challenged. She grabbed her untouched whiskey toasted Deidara before taking a sip.

A part of him wanted to be angry, but watching her flaunt his shortcomings in front of him had the opposite effect. Deidara was a piece of shit when he wanted to be, but he knew better than anyone where his faults lay. Most didn't hesitate to exploit them. Karin, on the other hand, seemed to want to mitigate them.

Or maybe he just liked the way she downed her whiskey like water.

_You're such a romantic bastard._

He tasted his blood on his tongue.

"You do realize I wanna kill the guy, right?"

Karin eyed the half-eaten food on the table, her expression anodyne and calm. Deidara got an eerie sense of deja-vu. Once, years ago, he'd said the same thing to Sasori.

"_You do_ _realize I wanna kill the guy, right?"_

Sasori had watched him with his usual alert lethargy, almost sleepy the way his eyelids drooped. It was all a trap, and one that Deidara learned the hard way to avoid at all costs. Sasori's smile held secrets, terrible secrets Deidara wanted no part of (_lies_).

_Filthy lies!_

But Itachi was dead and so was Sasori. What was there to fear? And yet, when Karin spoke next, Deidara heard Sasori instead of her.

"I suppose we all want something," she said, swirling her drink and gazing into its depths. "But that doesn't necessarily mean we know _what_."

Old secrets, old grudges. Old nightmares and possibilities without promise. Was she real? Or just a phantom from a past life he thought he'd left behind? Deidara rapped her on the head to make sure, and she hissed.

"What the hell?"

"_Everyone wants something."_

"_All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."_

_Secrets within secrets._

_Life within death._

Or was it death within life?

Sasori had always had a _point_, but Deidara was the only one still awake now.

"Say I agree," Deidara said, ignoring her protests. "How do I know you won't turn around and betray me when we find him?"

"You don't."

Deidara chuckled to himself and jammed the kunai in the wooden table between them. Karin didn't even flinch.

"Then here's my addendum," Deidara said, leaning forward on his elbows and twitching his mouth to satisfy the itch tickling his bloody cheek. "You don't get interfere with me when we find him, yeah."

Karin looked about ready to protest, and Deidara shrugged. "Listen, Red, that's my condition. You take it or leave it. With or without you, I'll find that prick eventually."

More lies. Deidara was pretty sure Sasuke was working with Akatsuki now, and if Akatsuki was good at one thing, it was staying hidden. _Tobi _had made a goddamned career out of it. The fact that Sasuke had cast out one of his former allies only made the situation more suspicious. Something heavy was happening, something bigger than either Karin or Deidara.

Maybe he did need her help.

_Finally, some truth._

"Fine," Karin relented. "When I find Sasuke, I won't interfere with you."

Deidara studied her, searching for some weakness, some hidden agenda, but he found none. That didn't mean it wasn't there, but she was tough. Tougher than most he'd encountered. She was still sitting across from him and breathing. It was more than he could say for the masses.

_I wonder why Sasuke threw you away?_

He quashed the thought as soon as it came to him. It was Sasuke's loss, and that was good enough for Deidara. He grinned wide and pulled the kunai from the table in front of them. He held it out to Karin.

"Then we got a deal, yeah."

Karin eyed the kunai, slick with Deidara's drying blood, and accepted it.

"Oh, but put that away. I let you cut me once, but I'm not gonna be so generous next time."

He said it with a smile on his face, but Karin got the message. Deidara wondered what it was about his smile. It was meant to disarm, but it usually had the opposite effect in his case. Oh _well._

He flagged down the bartender again and ordered more food. Karin gave him a weird look, and he rolled his eyes. This girl _really_ needed to lighten up.

"You look emaciated. Eat somethin' before a strong wind snaps you in two."

"I'm not as fragile as I look."

Deidara let his eyes roam just a little. Her hair was mussed and greasy from days of running. Her face was smudged with soot and a little blood, and he could make out her collarbone beneath her prison uniform.

"Coulda fooled me," he said.

Karin glared death at him, but he ignored it. He'd been subjected to far worse with Sasori. The food came and it smelled good enough. Karin eyed it but didn't touch it.

Deidara sighed. "Do I hafta force feed you or somethin'?"

"I don't have any money."

Deidara scrunched up his face in a half grimace half smile. _Charming_.

"Hey, just 'cause I'm a wanted murderer doesn't mean I'm no gentleman, yeah."

"Charming," Karin said.

Deidara smirked. "My thoughts exactly."

She ate and they lapsed into a benign silence. He smiled a little at this new first, and she shot him a look. So _suspicious_. But he let it go. When she finished (which was not long after, and he had to wonder when was the last time she'd eaten), he gestured to her.

"Anyway, you can't wear that."

"I don't have anything else."

"If anyone sees you lookin' like a fugitive, they're gonna think you're, uh, a _fugitive_." Deidara rummaged around his pockets for a moment and set a crumpled wad of cash on the table. "We're leaving early tomorrow. Make sure you look presentable before then, yeah."

Karin looked like she wanted to snap at him, but she refrained and drew the money toward herself. "What, you don't want to pick something out for me?" she said with false sweetness.

_Aaaahhh, what a bitch._

"Surprise me," he said, grinning. "_Please_."

Morning could not come soon enough.

* * *

When Uzuki Yugao found herself in the Hokage's office for a debriefing, she had not expected the palpable wave of rage and violence threatening to spill out of her like molten lava and knives at the behest of a single glance. Her small frame shook and her fingers itched to carve flesh. Her ANBU mask was a thin veil that left nothing to the imagination.

"Good, you're here," Tsunade said. There was a warning in her tone, a _threat_. Stand down, little girl.

"Hokage-sama, you were saying."

That voice. Yugao remembered it in passing, in the background when he hadn't mattered. Baki was the reason her life was empty now. He was the reason Hayate was dead, and now the Suna-Konoha alliance granted him immunity. It was revolting, absolutely _disgusting_. And there was nothing Yugao could do about it.

"Yes, now that you're both here," Tsunade said, nodding to Yugao. "I've acquired intel that Deidara of Akatsuki is alive and on the run."

Yugao paled, her previous fury fading to shock. "I thought this was about the prisoner who escaped."

Tsunade sighed. "It is. Our prisoner, Karin, was a member of Uchiha Sasuke's rogue team. According to my ANBU, she's joined forces with Deidara and the two of them are on the run now."

A moment of silence settled over the room's occupants as the gravity of the situation sank in. Yugao ran through the information she had about both Karin and Deidara. Karin was an extraordinary sensor the likes of which Konoha had never seen. Yugao's own sensory capabilities paled in comparison. Deidara was a demolitions expert with the capacity to decimate entire villages if the fancy struck him. It was the _fancy _that had earned him a spot in the Bingo book's Most Wanted. He was responsible for kidnapping and murdering the current Kazekage as a member of Akatsuki. Rumors that Deidara had died fighting Uchiha Sasuke had given Konoha no further leads, and he was pronounced deceased. Apparently, he didn't know how to stay dead.

"Is there any reason why the two of them would ally? Deidara fought Uchiha Sasuke. He seems like the last person one of Sasuke's teammates would want to consort with," Baki said.

Yugao had been thinking the same thing, but Baki's voice sent a mean shiver up her spine. She clenched her fist around the hilt of a dagger at her hip, willing herself to calm down.

"My thoughts exactly," Tsunade said, pacing the room behind her desk. "But the reasons are irrelevant in light of the facts."

The Hokage stopped her pacing and peered at Yugao over her shoulder. "Your mission is simple. I want you to retrieve Karin and bring her back into custody. She's our only viable link to Sasuke, and perhaps our best chance at bringing him to justice."

"And Deidara?" Baki asked, though Yugao got the distinct impression that he wasn't asking.

"He's the reason I've requested Suna's assistance. Konoha has no claim over Deidara. Do with him what you will."

Baki nodded.

_So that's it_, Yugao thought. She didn't like it, but it was fair. Suna had Deidara on convictions of terrorism, kidnapping, and murder. It was personal, and she could understand the Hokage's unwillingness to dabble in that can of worms. Yugao knew where this was going now, and she _really _did not like it.

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama, why send me? Surely there are better choices. Hatake Kakashi, for example," Yugao said.

Her long, purple hair was hot against her back as she began to sweat. The proximity was getting to her.

"Kakashi is too well-known across the five nations. My ANBU don't have jurisdiction outside the Fire Country."

Yugao bit her lip. Of course, it made sense. This was a job for Hunters. After Hayate had died, Yugao contemplated withdrawing from the ANBU altogether. But she was one the best. Anko and Kakashi convinced her to stay on as a Hunter to take her out of the village, especially in the wake of the fledgling Konoha-Suna alliance. It was too much for Yugao to bear, knowing her fiancé's killer would be exonerated as easily as the Hokage had signed the treaty.

"Use whatever means you deem necessary," Tsunade continued. "The Kazekage and I cannot send you back-up now that Deidara and Karin have crossed the border. The last thing we need is to give the other Hidden Villages an excuse to fortify their boundaries."

In other words, should anyone catch Yugao and Baki pursuing fugitives in foreign territory, it would give hostiles an excuse to cause trouble here. Discretion was key.

Tsunade handed Yugao a sealed mission scroll. "You're both dismissed. I expect you to be out of here within the hour. There's no time to lose."

With that Tsunade waved them out. Baki bowed and excused himself first, not sparing Yugao so much as a cursory glance. Yugao bit her lip before she could mutter something the Hokage might overhear and trudged out the door. Once outside, Baki was nowhere to be found. Good riddance.

Sighing, Yugao ran a hand through her long hair and headed east toward her apartment building. It was late afternoon and the sun would drop beneath the horizon in a couple of hours. Most missions departed during the morning, but Hunters always left at the first sign of darkness. Like their targets, they were never meant to be seen.

Not five minutes later, Yugao was inside her single bedroom apartment. She locked the door behind her but didn't bother turning on the lights. Looking over her shoulder, she caught her reflection in a mirror on the opposite wall. It was framed in brass, a trinket the previous owner had left behind and Yugao hadn't bothered to take down since it added a nice touch to the room. Her reflection looked back at her across the living room. The ANBU mask at her neck snarled, angry and red, so unlike her own blank face. The contrast made her nauseous, like she didn't belong here masquerading as something she didn't feel.

Drawing the knife at her hip, Yugao threw it across the living room. It hit the mirror dead center, shattering it.

"I want him dead," she whispered to the empty silence of her apartment.

The many pieces of broken mirror watched her, blinking in the shifting shadows cast by curtained windows like so many dead eyes. She saw multiples of herself in them, all watching with dark eyes too spent to cry another tear for the love she'd lost.

"But I can't kill him," she admitted.

Unable to stand the sight of her manifest burst of violence, Yugao retrieved a pre-packed mission bag from her room. As a Hunter, she had to be ready to depart at a moment's notice. She grabbed her Hunter's coat and a blank, white mask from a closet in the foyer on autopilot, trading them for the ANBU mask around her neck. The mirror mess would have to wait until she returned.

Without a last look back at the small sanctuary she barely lived in due to her busy life and no one to share it with, Yugao headed for Konoha's main gate alone. By now, the sun had disappeared and twilight was upon the village. She scanned the mission scroll the Hokage had given her as she walked. Baki was waiting for her, a headscarf obscuring half of his face. The tattoos on his right temple were elongated in dusk's semi-shadow, like talons not fully receded. Yugao stopped just close enough to hear him, but no closer.

"Uzuki-san, have you made your preparations?" he asked, although Yugao had a feeling it wasn't a question.

She lowered her Hunter's mask over her face in response and walked out the gate. Baki trailed after her but said nothing of her cold greeting.

"The targets were last spotted sixty-two miles northeast of here. I should be able to pick up a trail on site," Yugao said, taking to the trees.

Baki followed. "You're sure about that?"

"Yes," Yugao bit out. "Of the ANBU squad that encountered Deidara and Karin, only Tenzou survived. He's reliable."

"Very well."

_Ass._

Any excuse to hate this man was good enough for Yugao. They proceeded in silence. It would be a long mission, and she already wished she was back home having drinks with Anko and Kakashi and Genma, anything to pretend like the void in her heart could be filled, or at least drowned.

* * *

Karin would never admit it, but she was glad Deidara had forced her to get some new clothes. The prison uniform was too big on her and quite itchy. She had a niggling suspicion that it hadn't been washed since the last prisoner had worn it. Now, showered and clad in black leggings, combat boots, a fishnet tank top, and a long-sleeved lavender jacket, she felt more like herself and, more importantly, confident. She resolved to return the change to Deidara, though there wasn't much left. Never let it be said that Karin was a thief or a swindler. She had her morals.

The previous night had been rather anticlimactic. In her darkest delusions, Karin had anticipated drunken advances or at least rudeness on Deidara's part. Instead, they got back to his hotel room and settled into two twin beds on opposite sides of the room and a bathroom with a lockable door. He barely said a word to her as he turned in and left her to clean up. He never did wash the blood off his face, and this bothered Karin for reasons she could not name. It was gone in the morning when she saw him, though. Only a tender scrape marked the location of her battery, clean and thin. She let it go, unwilling to entertain the discomfort she felt gazing upon it. He should have been angry with her.

He wasn't.

But he _could _get angry. He'd proven that just fine the other night when he decided to take a turn for the scary. Karin's _modus operandi _had always been survival, and Deidara had jeopardized that for just a split second. She would have to be very careful with him. He was not Sasuke.

_Sasuke._

He needed her. This was Karin's first thought as she walked back to the hotel she and Deidara were staying at. Sasuke had not been in his right mind when he'd—

She couldn't even think it.

It was so out of character for Sasuke to do something like that. He'd never, not _once_, lifted a finger against her. It had always been the two of them against the world, the only people they had left in this cruel, empty life. It was still that way. Sasuke's brother wasn't coming back, and neither were Karin's parents. It was why he'd gone for Danzō that way, the _only _way.

She shook her head. It was still too soon.

_When will it be too late?_

The door to her shared room with Deidara stared her in the face. She'd been standing out here for awhile, inert. Scowling, Karin ignored her troubled thoughts and knocked.

"Who is it?"

Karin rolled her eyes. "Open the goddamned door, Deidara."

"Gee, _someone_'s not a morning person." He opened the door but blocked her entry as he gave her a once-over.

Karin resisted the urge to cross her arms.

"Anyway, let's get outta here, yeah."

He made no comment about her appearance, and it sort of pissed Karin off. He'd been so concerned about it last night, after all. But he retreated into the room without a word and Karin decided it wasn't worth it. Something told her Deidara was the type to harp on details, so better not to bring up the issue at all.

They left the hotel and started in a northerly direction for about two miles out of town before Deidara stopped.

"So, where is he?"

Karin came to a rest near a tall tree with a trunk wider around than she was. "It's not that simple. I have to pick up a trace before I can track him."

"So find a trace. How hard can it be?"

"Depends."

Karin concentrated her chakra and reached out as far as she could. She saw lush forests teeming with life, birds and lizards and foraging rodents. She saw sandy wastelands, deserts where life struggled for its time in the light. Rocky mountains to the north bore little fruit among snow and dark crevasses reaching to the bowels of the earth. There were people, but there was no Sasuke.

"He's not in range."

"And what's 'in range' exactly, hm?" Deidara said.

"About a thousand miles in all directions." Karin gestured to nowhere in particular, as if this would illustrate her point.

Deidara snorted. "A thousand miles? You can't be serious."

She held his gaze. "I don't joke. Look, I may not be much of a fighter, but I'm damn good at what I do."

He sauntered toward her and Karin backed up against the tree. If he meant to attack her, she would not give him the satisfaction—

"Maybe that's your problem, not joking, yeah."

Karin's lips thinned at his odd behavior. "Maybe I'm not the problem."

He rolled his eyes and gestured before his face, like he was swatting invisible flies. "Whatever. Whaddaya hafta do, then? Sniff some of Sasuke's old clothes or somethin'?"

Karin rubbed her temples. "You clearly know nothing about sensory perception."

Deidara grabbed her wrist and forced her to look at him. His blue eye, usually bright and shifty, was icy and sharp enough to cut herself on with the way he was looking at her—_smiling_. She hatedthat look, she decided. She hated how it made her fingers tremble. Karin clutched the kunai in her jacket pocket with her free hand.

"Enlighten me," he said, releasing her and dispelling the frigid atmosphere between them as though it had never been there at all.

Karin adjusted her glasses. "When I say I'm the best sensor you'll ever encounter, I mean it. You name one other sensor who can practically scale an ocean with her mind."

He got in her face and peered into her eyes. Karin pressed herself against the tree trunk, surprised, but Deidara was unfazed as he searched for something in her expression, curious but not threatening. Like the answers were written all over her face in a language he couldn't read.

"Is that how you found Itachi? By scaling an ocean?"

Karin thought back to her days with Sasuke, Suigetsu, and Juugo when they were still Team Hebi. Sasuke had never made a big deal about it, but his goal hinged on Karin's ability to come through for him. She had been the one to track Itachi's movements for weeks until Sasuke fought a genjutsu version of his brother in a subterranean catacomb in Lightning Country. Even the dream of Itachi had been stifling, like breathing noxious fumes from a paper bag and wanting more. She could see the appeal for Sasuke. People sought out death as much as they ran from it, lying to themselves all the way like they _didn't _want it when really, it was the closest most people ever got to living. In Sasuke's case, there was little distinction. And there was no need for lies.

"Anyway, I need to get a trace of Sasuke before I can follow his trail. Our best bet is to inquire locally. You said you already covered the major western territories, so assuming you didn't half-ass it, we can safely move east."

"Wait, okay, so to find Sasuke you need a trace of him to follow, but to find a trace of him to follow you have to pick up his trail first. Without having a trace." He paused before adding, "And he's untraceable from our current location." He shot her a withering look that would have made the soft-hearted laugh at how silly he looked.

Karin was not amused. She was this close to gutting him. There was a distinct stench of Hozuki Suigetsu about Deidara save for the very real possibility of follow through with his violence. Best not to lose her temper.

"You're missing the point. Everyone leaves a trail. It's impossible not to. I'll find it."

"What's it look like?"

Karin stared at him. Morning sunlight filtered through the canopy overhead and she had a vision of another canopy burning to ash and exposing her to harsh sunlight. Too much light. Violent light. Deidara's hands were safe at his sides now, but his eye shone blue and bright with visions of grandeur best left unprovoked. A child...and a death knell.

"_You think you got him aaaaallllll figured out, huh?"_

Karin blinked and dispelled the memory of Suigetsu's voice from so many years ago. She sucked on her lower lip, an old habit from her preteen years. Suigetsu was not here, and they weren't thirteen anymore.

_Deidara's not Sasuke._

She had a job to do.

"The trail?" She had to think about that for a moment. No one had ever asked her what it _looked _like. "It's... I guess it's like smoke, but it doesn't dissipate."

He cracked a smile, but there was no threat in it. He pulled it off like a lazy afterthought, and Karin tensed. "Sounds weird, yeah."

"Well, lucky for you, you don't have to worry about it."

They fell silent for a bit as Karin tried to think. Where could Sasuke be? She hadn't given it much thought in prison, more concerned with planning a successful escape. Thinking about him reminded her of the last time she'd seen him, and that always put a bit of a damper on her mood.

_Understatement._

If she were Sasuke and she were lost to darkness under the veil of insanity, where would she go?

"You said there's been no news," she said after a moment.

"Nothing major. A guy like Sasuke can't go unnoticed anymore if he tries anything, yeah."

Karin removed her glasses and cleaned them. "Then he's in hiding. Which means he's not moving, or moving infrequently. He'll have a bounty the size of Cloud's royal coffers on his head after the shit he pulled at the Kage summit. No, he'll stay hidden."

Deidara said nothing as he watched her devise a strategy, and Karin ended up interrupting her own train of thought waiting for him to burst out with some inane complaint or other. Suigetsu had become white noise while she plotted, and it was a sound she'd grown accustomed to as a member of Taka. Deidara, however, remained still and silent, his lone blue eye watching her with an unreadable glint.

_Not Suigetsu, either._

"...Which means we may have to re-check some of the western countries."

"I was thorough," Deidara said, voice soft.

"All the same, I don't think—"

"Red, I said I was thorough, yeah."

There was no malice or even a hint of irritation in his tone. Karin found herself nodding. "Right, okay then."

Maybe for this, she could trust a former Akatsuki to do a good job.

"Then the only option is for us to start looking and wait until I pick up a trail. Like I said, it _will_ happen. No one's invisible."

Deidara peered up at the canopy and sunlight hit his cheek in leafy patterns. "No, I guess not."

Karin wanted to ask, but thought better of it. Deidara's situation wasn't hard to gauge. He was alive but he wasn't wearing his Akatsuki uniform. Madara, posing as Tobi, had recruited Taka to replace Akatsuki's fallen members, Deidara included. The only logical explanation Karin could draw was that Deidara was on the run from Madara, probably with no intention of returning to Akatsuki at least for the time being, if at all. Karin didn't blame him. She'd distrusted Madara from the start, if he was even who he said he was (he wasn't, and even his lies couldn't escape Karin's powerful sight). It would explain why they were proceeding on foot now instead of flying. Deidara had to keep a low profile if he wanted to avoid detection. He was really serious about Sasuke, then. Karin didn't want to think about that, but it served her purposes for now; so long as she stuck with Deidara, she could ensure that they both avoided the detection he feared.

"I know where Akatsuki's bases are," Deidara continued. "Would that help you?"

"Possibly. Sasuke will probably be with Madara—er, Tobi—so it would make sense for them to use Akatsuki bases."

At the mention of Tobi, Deidara frosted over and looked away.

_So he's aware_, Karin thought.

"Whatever. The closest one's up north in the Land of Waterfalls. Depending on how slow you are, maybe we'll get there next week, yeah."

Karin scowled. "For your information, I'm perfectly capable of running long distances without slowing my team down. _You _might have trouble keeping up."

Deidara chuckled. "Y'know, you say the darndest things, Red."

Karin frowned at that unimaginative moniker Deidara had decided to bestow upon her. It wasn't offensive, but no one had ever called her anything other than 'Karin'. Something told her that complaining about it would only strengthen Deidara's resolve to keep it.

"Let's go. Konoha'll send someone after us once they find out what I did to their little fairy forest, yeah."

Karin followed and they took to the trees at a hard pace, but not grueling. She maintained a respectable distance but took care not to stray behind. "Konoha's ANBU don't have jurisdiction outside Fire Country borders. We'll probably lose any pursuers once we make it out of their territory."

Deidara stared ahead, his expression grim. "First rule of bein' on the run, Red: there are no rules. It's not the ANBU I'm talkin' about."

Karin fell silent, choosing not to engage him further. She was sure Deidara knew more about the life of a fugitive than she did, having only dabbled in the lifestyle for a few months since joining Sasuke on the hunt for his brother. And it had landed her in jail in the end.

Wind in her hair was cool and comforting as she flew across the treetops, matching Deidara's pace with ease now that she was rested. Freedom, in the wind through her hair and the sunlight catching her blurred shadows. With Deidara at her side, she could withstand whatever Konoha or anyone else threw at her. Such complications were merely nugatory at this point. Sasuke was out there somewhere, and Karin finally had the means to track him down. Whatever Deidara's nefarious intentions toward Sasuke, Karin had time to neutralize them. For now, she would use him for her purposes and get what she needed.

_Sasuke beat him once. He can do it again._

Deidara touched down on a nearby branch and lunged forward upon invisible wings, as though he hadn't needed the boost at all. His gaze remained ever forward, unflinching, like Karin's.

_He _can _beat Deidara again._

She swallowed and tried not to think about the voice in her head repeating that mantra like a prayer to gods who had never listened to her before.

* * *

They hadn't said more than two words to each other since beginning this mission. Baki had never cared for small talk, but in Yugao's case he was beginning to think a little noise would do them both some good.

"_Gaara, with all due respect, you know my history with Gekko Hayate. They were engaged to be married."_

The Kazekage had dismissed the concern as trivial. _"I trust you to handle Deidara. I'm sure you can handle some bad blood with an ally."_

_In other words, fix it_, Baki thought as he'd made the reluctant three-day journey to Konoha. The Hokage had briefed him in the hospital as she personally tended to the lone Konoha ANBU who had survived Deidara's attack. Yamato, Baki remembered from previous dealings with Hatake Kakashi's Chuunin team. Yamato had been in critical condition, but his testimony was clear as day. Deidara of Akatsuki was alive, and now Baki's job was to set aside his elder's mantle and dust off his old Hunter's toolbox. This one was personal after what Deidara had done to Gaara and to Suna.

His history with Hayate, however, was more of a problem than Baki had originally anticipated. If it came down to it, Baki wasn't sure if he could count on Yugao to have his back in a fight. Deidara fought dirty, and Baki had no idea how Karin's presence would affect that. Baki would need all the help he could get, and right now he didn't know who was the bigger threat to his personal safety, Deidara or his own partner.

Baki sighed in relief when they finally arrived at the scene of Deidara and Karin's escape from Yamato's ANBU team, and Yugao shot him a dirty look, misinterpreting the action. He ignored her, knowing there was no use in explaining himself lest he bring up the topic he knew neither of them was eager to engage in. Instead, he cleared his throat and crouched down, examining the charred earth with a small flashlight from his pack. The crescent moon above offered little light despite the incinerated canopy no longer blotting it out.

"It smells like Deidara," he said after a moment's observation.

"I beg your pardon?"

They were the first words he'd heard from Yugao all night, and he flinched at their grating tone after so much silence.

"Explosion release," Baki clarified.

"Tenzou's report said that Deidara launched a fire elemental attack, not a bomb," Yugao said, pacing the area and searching for something with her own flashlight.

"Deidara can combine elemental attacks. I've seen him do it before."

Memories of Deidara and Gaara waging a war in mid-air only left a bad taste in Baki's mouth. Back then, Deidara had manipulated his Earth and Explosion release chakras to infiltrate Gaara's sand and nearly kill him. Loud and pompous on the surface, Baki had learned his lesson back then that Deidara was much more than that flamboyant facade. It was a ruse, a misdirection employed by a skilled magician working his true and terrible magic beyond his spectators' lines of sight. It made Deidara the S-class threat he was, the man who had murdered the Kazekage and gotten away with it.

"And I'll never forget the smell of it. Like burning coal and blood, but there's a hint of something sweet underneath. It's poison."

Yugao gave him a blank look. "Just smells like forest to me."

She went on ignoring him and he dropped it. No use arguing over something like this. Still, something about this scene was unsettling. Baki hadn't thought much about Deidara over the past year since Gaara's kidnapping, but being here brought it all back like it had happened this morning. The desperation, the anguish, the black hatred and fear and total helplessness upon realizing he was outclassed in every imaginable way.

No.

It was only because no one in Suna had been prepared that day. If Baki had known the threat Deidara posed, he would have been able to stop the blond bomber, of this he was sure. He had to be. This time, Gaara wasn't here to protect everyone. It was just Baki and his unwilling partner, whose worth he had yet to confirm.

"Here we go," Yugao said.

Baki rose. "Did you find something?"

Yugao said nothing and he walked toward where she knelt. A small patch of grass had survived the conflagration, and she rested her hand upon it now.

"This is where they stood," she said, her eyes closed. "While my comrades burned to death."

Baki remained silent. There was nothing to say to that. Yugao rose and opened her eyes, searching the night sky and then looking toward the trees, northeast.

"There," she said. "They went that way."

"How can you tell?"

She frowned and pocketed her flashlight. "It's my job. Or do you not trust that I can do it properly?"

She lowered her Hunter's mask once more and walked away from him without waiting for his reply. Baki had the urge to retort but held his tongue. Not worth it.

Racing through the trees once more, the pair lapsed into silence for a bit. Baki, however, was running in the dark and at the mercy of Yugao's supposed sensory skills.

"Where are they headed?" he ventured.

"There's a town just across the border. After the scene back there, they probably needed a place to regroup."

No elaboration, no commentary. Just the hard, cold facts. If this was the way Baki's life would be day-to-day for the foreseeable future, he was sure he might go mad with frustration. But his professional demeanor kept him from making things personal. It would not do. Gaara had entrusted him with this important mission, and he was not about to jeopardize it because of his partner's clipped tone. Of course, the resentment ran far deeper than that, he was sure, but it was a moot point. For now, Baki could only concentrate on doing his job.

Any progress with Yugao would come later, if at all. That is, if they survived each other long enough to get to that point.

* * *

According to Deidara, Akatsuki had a base in Waterfall Country.

"What does Akatsuki even meet about?" Karin asked as they hiked along the edge of a cliff overlooking a deep gorge.

"You were Akatsuki. Don't you know?"

"Most of the original members were dead by the time Taka got recruited. No point in staging meetings."

"You know, you do this thing where I can't tell if you're being helpful or just an ass, yeah."

Karin rolled her eyes. "Funny, I could say the same about you."

Waterfall Country was cooler than Fire Country. The air was redolent of pine and rainfall, and the sky above was overcast with the threat of more rain. Hundreds of feet below, a raging river cutting through the gorge thundered like an avalanche. This was the Great Outdoors, as Juugo liked to say. He'd always felt more at ease in the wilderness than among people, Karin thought. She supposed she could understand that on some level given his psychotic episodes. They tended to make relating to normal people a real challenge.

But here in the midst of nature, away from prying eyes and breathing crisp, mountain air, she could at least feel the illusion of freedom. As though reading her mind, Deidara paused to stand at the edge of the gorge and took a deep breath, raising his arms. The toe ends of his boots hung over the edge of the cliff, like he wasn't afraid of falling at such a high altitude. For the second time since she'd met him, Karin was reminded of feathers, white and strong, beating on the wind with the force of a hundred wings. Even if he were to tumble over the edge of that rock face, Deidara would never be a slave to gravity.

"I could stay here forever," he said, not looking at her.

Karin watched him and his vibrant chakra, brighter than any she'd seen besides Naruto's. It was oranges and yellows, like the sun, though he emitted no warmth. A false beacon, cold fire. Ironic, considering how they'd nearly perished roasting to death. She didn't move, didn't reach out to him. One wrong move and he could blow, a ticking time bomb ready to drag them both down just for the hell of it. Or maybe she didn't want to ruin the image of him standing on top of the world like he belonged there. Not as a king looking down on the masses, but as an observer, reverent and wanting for inspiration either to create or destroy, though they were mutually inclusive with him from what she'd seen so far. The wind pushed him forward and gravity tempted his fall, but something stronger than those forces of nature kept him suspended, teetering. For as long as she lived, Karin would never forget Deidara as he looked now, on the edge of life but so ready for the adventure of death.

She hesitated, not wanting to break the moment, but they didn't have all the time in the world. "Deidara, we need to keep moving."

Deidara brought his arms to his sides and turned to face her. "Right. Don't wanna keep Sasuke waiting, yeah."

Karin said nothing to that or to the smirk he flashed her and continued on ahead, extending her senses. She walked with her eyes closed. The Mind's Eye of the Kagura allowed her to see the world as it was meant to be seen. There was life in the trees, in the earth, even in the air around her. Deidara was a bright burst of sunlight in her third eye, blinding, but she focused away from him, beyond, searching.

"So uh, how'd you meet Sasuke, anyway? He shit on your way of life, too?" Deidara asked as he trudged along behind Karin.

"No. He only played that card with you."

"Well, lucky me."

Karin didn't respond. Partially because she was concentrating, but mostly because she didn't want to broach this subject with Deidara, of all people. Her acquaintance with Sasuke was no one's business but hers. They kept on through the pine forest for several miles, winding away from the gorge and deeper into the woods. Human settlements peppered the landscape in all directions, and Karin led Deidara between and around them. But even the perfect sensor isn't perfect. Not when faced with the ideal opponent, one equally as perfect.

"Shit," Karin said.

"What's the matter?"

Karin yanked Deidara to the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of him. Silence.

Utter silence.

Karin breathed through her teeth, extending her senses again, wishing she'd been wrong. Deidara's face was smashed to the ground, but he didn't make a peep even as he struggled in her surprisingly firm grip and spat out grass. The look he shot her was venomous, but it didn't faze her. It wasn't like the look he'd given her when she'd flung her kunai at him in the bar the other night, the look that foresaw something beyond her death. That Deidara was the true Deidara, the fury and the pain and the lust for something not of this world, something so far beyond the both of them and she was in the way. But right now he was just annoyed, itching. Manageable. This was the facade, the Deidara Karin was comfortable slamming into the ground like a misbehaving child. Did she know? No. It was pure luck. Or maybe he knew, _knew_ that she knew something was amiss. For surely it wasn't trust. He would have incinerated her along with those Konoha ANBU if he didn't need her.

"Fuck me," Deidara hissed.

"Two, dead ahead, about two miles out."

Deidara scraped at his tongue to get the dirt out. "You're shitting me. You shoved me into the ground when we're not even in sight of whoever's out there?"

Karin was silent. Hesitant. She never hesitated. "It's not what you think. One of them's like me."

"Abusive with a bad haircut?"

Karin ignored his half-hearted insult in favor of probing further. To her horror, she felt the other sensor probe back. She hadn't been wrong.

"_Shit_!"

She slammed Deidara into the earth again, and he squirmed. He was easily physically more powerful than she, and he had her pinned in a matter of seconds.

"What the actual fuck," he snarled.

Karin recovered quickly, ignoring the sting in her back from the rocks digging into it. She shot her hands upward and grasped Deidara's shoulders. Red chakra flared at her fingertips and seeped through Deidara's clothes. He moved a hand to her throat and got serious very fast.

"Karin," he said, all traces of his informal charm gone as the killer instinct took over.

Karin gasped for breath but didn't cease her chakra output. "Hiding us," she said. "Trust me."

Deidara's fingers curled around her throat and Karin saw stars. She dug her nails into his shoulders, willing her chakra forth. The other in the distance was still searching, having caught a whiff of her. Karin's face warmed uncomfortably, too much blood, and just when she thought she might burst, the pressure let up. Deidara released her.

"Explain."

Sucking in a breath, Karin squeezed her eyes shut to dissipate the hallucination of lights from lack of oxygen.

"There's a sensor, a damn good one. Just shut up."

Deidara peered down at her. His long bangs brushed her cheek, itchy, and she had the nonsensical gall to be irritated in spite of the life he had nearly squeezed out of her. After a moment's hesitation, he rolled off of her and sat up, rubbing his shoulders. Karin kept a hand on his knee.

"What'd you do to me?"

Karin coughed and sat up. Her neck was tender, and she knew she'd bruise later on. Physical appearance, however, had never been very high on her list of priorities. "I masked your chakra."

"I can do that myself, y'know."

"Not like I can. And not from a sensor that good," she said, adjusting her glasses. "Whoever they are, they got a reading on me. I don't think they were looking, but my technique tipped them off. If we're lucky, they didn't pick up on you."

Deidara watched her a moment, scowling. "How do you even know that?"

Karin shrugged and hugged a knee to her chest with the hand that wasn't touching Deidara. "It's the one thing I always know. The sensor's with another shinobi, someone with enormous chakra. More than I've ever felt before."

Deidara thought about that a moment. "Two of them, a sensor and some kind of chakra beast, huh? Sounds familiar, yeah."

He tried to stand, but Karin tugged him down. "We have to maintain physical contact for my chakra to mask yours. If we break it, you'll stick out like a sore thumb."

Deidara grinned and grabbed her hand. "Well, if you _insist_."

Karin eyed his hand in hers, the same one he'd used to choke her, but pushed away those silly thoughts. He wasn't in the mood to fight her, nor did he have a reason. She'd just caught him off-guard. Logic told her not to worry, but then, Logic and Deidara should never be used in the same train of thought. Reluctantly, she let him pull her up.

"Don't ever do that to me again," he said casually. "Or I might _accidentally_ kill you."

Karin swallowed but kept her gaze steady and focused on his. Deidara was at his most unnerving when he was in a good mood. "I'm sorry," she said, meaning it. "I didn't have time to do anything else."

"Hmph. So, let's go."

He tugged her forward in the direction she'd indicated the two chakra signatures, and Karin resisted.

"Hey, what the hell! We should find another way around them."

"No way. This is just the trace you need to find Sasuke, yeah."

"What're you talking about? Did you not hear what I said—"

"I heard you, Red. And we're goin'. Just shut up."

Karin did not appreciate him throwing her own words back at her. She let him drag her along, but she wasn't happy about it. "What's the point of this? If you want to kill them, then all my effort was for nothing."

"Try to lighten up. I know what I'm doing. Now, which way?"

Karin paused and looked back from where they'd come. "I sensed them straight ahead, about two miles up."

"What about now?"

Karin jogged forward to stand next to Deidara so he wouldn't pull her along behind him like a whipped animal. His hand was bigger than hers, and his grip was slightly uncomfortable as he attempted not to let her slip out and blow their cover. She didn't feel the mouth on his palm, for which she was grateful. They gave her the creeps.

"I can't use my technique while I'm hiding. Otherwise, the sensor will find me. Us."

"Well, that's not very helpful, yeah."

"You're just a ray of sunshine today, aren't you."

Deidara chuckled. "When am I not?"

They proceeded in silence. Karin nearly tripped over a gnarled tree root when Deidara hopped over it and didn't wait for her to notice it in time. She put her colorful mouth to good use chewing him out, and he just laughed at her. When she asked what his problem was, he just shrugged.

"You're just not what I pictured, yeah."

"Why would you picture me at all?"

"Dunno. Guess you're hard to miss. All that...choppy red and sourness, y'know."

"So I'm a color and a bad attitude to you. That's a pretty juvenile way to look at people."

"That's what we are, though. Colors, smells. Sometimes a twang of personality, like that one out-of-tune note in a song. Everyone looks different if you bother to notice, yeah."

Karin had nothing to say to that. On some level she understood. When she looked at people, she could taste their auras. That's all they were to her, masses of colorful energy, temperature, and taste. Each one unique. Some were abhorrent, and some were like sugar. People, however, were more than the colors they exuded. They could be so much more if they decided it was worth the effort. But she kept these thoughts to herself. No need to draw someone as delusional as Deidara into a pseudo-existentialist discussion.

They lapsed into silence again until they were nearly upon the place Karin had indicated she'd sensed the other shinobi presences. Deidara pulled away but Karin yanked him back, scowling. He frowned at their clasped hands, but didn't argue. Crouching together, they crept toward the outskirts of a human settlement. The trees thinned and Karin saw dwellings in the distance. The half-crawl half-waddle she and Deidara were dancing had to be the most ridiculous situation Karin had ever been in. Like two children playing spies, sneaking up on the bad guys in what they hoped was a discreet ambush. At least they were professionals. Professional waddlers. Karin made a face at the thought and Deidara shook his head in understanding.

"Yeah, I smell it too," he said. "You get used to it, yeah."

"What are you even talking about?" Karin whispered.

He pointed toward the nearest cabin, abandoned from the looks of it, where two figures were conversing in hushed tones among the trees. Karin almost fell backward at the sight, feeling more and more like she really was a child spy sneaking up on bad guys. Monsters.

They wore Akatsuki uniforms.

One was a giant Venus Fly-Trap, or at least a man being eaten by one. The other was impossibly tall, blue, and carried a sword. She recognized him.

"Hoshigaki Kisame," she hissed at Deidara.

"No, not him, _Zetsu_," Deidara said. "Don't you smell it? Like, rotten eggs and bird crap. A little vinegar, too."

Karin shoved him with her elbow. "Just shut up. I can't hear what they're saying."

Deidara decided to get a closer look. He pulled Karin to the right, and they skirted the two Akatsuki. Karin watched them without blinking. With her heart pounding in her ears, it was no wonder she had trouble overhearing them. These were the kinds of people who could kill her without breaking a sweat. They were the people she had enlisted Deidara to protect her from. Though, he'd been one of them until very recently. So had she. In her short-lived stint with Akatsuki, however, Karin hadn't had the pleasure of meeting with any members besides Madara. From what she remembered of Kisame during Sasuke's fight with Itachi, she was glad of it. Even Suigetsu hadn't been able to handle the older Mist nin when they went sword to sword.

"How much longer?" Zetsu asked. "_He's waiting for an update._"

Karin shivered at the two-toned voice. If only she could use her technique right now, she could get a glimpse of Zetsu's chakra. But just being thirty feet away was enough to give her the creeps.

Deidara crouched behind a thick pine tree next to a large rock barely big enough to conceal them both. Karin held her breath. This was stupid and reckless. They should have just avoided the situation entirely. One wrong move and the Akatsuki could discover them spying.

"Not long," Kisame said. "I'll infiltrate Kumo and grab the Jinchuuriki that way. It's such a hassle, though. Guess Itachi's little brother wasn't up to the task after all."

At the mention of Sasuke, Karin had to bite down on her lip hard to keep from gasping. She tasted her own blood. Deidara caught her eye but remained silent. It was too risky to talk here, so she mouthed a word she hoped would explain it all:

"Hachibi."

Deidara glared at the pair and his grip on Karin's hand tightened uncomfortably. Karin had thought the Hachibi was already accounted for after all the trouble Taka had gone through to capture it for Madara. Apparently not. What did this mean for Sasuke?

"_Just get it done_," Zetsu growled.

"Sure. Don't want to keep Madara waiting."

Deidara's hand shook in Karin's, and she became alarmed. He looked ready to jump into action. A soft crunching sound from his free hand told her that conclusion wasn't far off. Ignoring his earlier warning to her, Karin grabbed his other hand and pulled him lower behind the rock. She searched his eyes, trying to convey a message to stand down, don't do anything stupid.

For a moment, he didn't see her, and that scared her to the core. His grip on her tightened to the point that he could break her hand, and she stifled a whimper. And just like that, he found himself again. His grip loosened enough to merely bruise, not break, and he breathed audibly through his nose.

"He knew," Deidara mouthed.

Karin had an idea that Deidara meant Tobi's true identity as Madara, but there was no time to dwell on Deidara's fury.

"Speaking of Madara, I never see him anymore," Kisame said. "He must have his hands full with Itachi's little brother."

"Not at the moment. Sasuke's still recovering from the fight with Danzō. They're lying low until he's fit to fight again."

"Well, send my regards."

Kisame grinned, and Karin was reminded of Suigetsu when he was about to relish in a good, bloody kill. They hardly talked about his past growing up in the Bloody Mist and she never asked, not out of courtesy but out of kindness. Some memories were better left buried in dark holes, never to be dug up again. She wondered what it had been like for Suigetsu to face Kisame. Was it a rush to fight a famed legendary swordsman? Or was it a glimpse at the perfectly twisted specimen he could have become had he remained up to his eyes in blood back in Mist? Karin supposed she would never know.

"I would," Zetsu said, "but even I don't know where he's holed up at the moment." "_The kid makes him paranoid._"

"Ah," Kisame said, turning away as if to leave. "Then, until next time, perhaps."

Zetsu said nothing to that, and he watched Kisame disappear into the forest to the east, possibly heading to Lightning Country. Deidara sat up higher to watch, his expression calm but his visible eye turbulent. Seething. Just as Karin pulled him back down and out of sight, a gale swooped in from the south behind them. Zetsu, for all his bulk, whirled and hissed. Karin's heart leaped into her throat, and she cursed herself.

He could smell them.

Worse, he was searching for them. It was like the sensation of someone looming over her, invisible and breathing down her neck. Only a thin veil of shadows kept Zetsu from discovering his eavesdroppers, and that was dissipating fast. Karin didn't have the ability to mask smells, and running would blow their cover. Every scenario that raced through her head ended badly. Deidara, however, seemed perfectly calm. Karin glared at him, about ready to make a break for it, when she noticed the hand seal he was making with his free hand.

An explosion sounded in the distance, and plumes of smoke rose from a dwelling in the town just north of their position. Karin could hear townspeople screaming, and after a couple seconds she could smell the fire. Kerosene and cedar pine, soot. It made her eyes water. Zetsu stopped his advance in their direction to examine the commotion in the town. Not wasting a moment, Deidara backed away from their hiding spot, pulling Karin along with him, and retreated to thicker trees. All this transpired within the span of seven seconds.

"I don't know who you are," Zetsu called, not bothering with the ruse and ending his search. "_But the next time I catch wind of you, you're dead._"

Zetsu receded into the ground with a crumbling sound, gone.

Deidara snorted. He broke into a run, skirting the village. Karin recovered quickly and ran after him, weaving through trees and watching for obstructions on the forest floor. He'd broken their physical contact as soon as Zetsu left, and Karin was glad to have her hand back. As they ran, she reactivated her technique and scanned the area. There was no trace of Zetsu anywhere, though she couldn't imagine how he could travel so fast underground. Kisame was making good time and hadn't noticed the explosion, or didn't care. She and Deidara were safe, for now.

When they had cleared the town by a few miles, Karin stopped. "What the hell was that?"

"Improvising. You should try it sometime, Red," Deidara said, slowing to a halt just ahead.

"I knew this was a bad idea. He knew we were there and didn't come after us. I don't know _why_, but that was just pure, dumb luck."

Deidara sighed dramatically and leaned back against a pine tree, hands in his pockets. "Chill out before you give yourself an aneurysm, yeah."

Karin marched right up to him and poked him in the chest, hard. "Chill out? We just took an unnecessary risk because you _felt_ like it. I don't know how you're used to operating with your old partners, but I sure as hell am not about to throw my life away because of you."

Deidara smacked her finger away and frowned. "Zetsu's weak. I know club bouncers who're more of a threat than him. He wouldna come after us without Kisame there."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? Because it doesn't."

Deidara rolled his eye and Karin fought to urge to scratch it out with her bare hands. She'd known Deidara was a live wire, but suicidal? She hadn't been able to believe Sasuke's story that Deidara had turned himself into a living bomb just to beat him. A victory was useless if it resulted in the victor's death, case in point, Deidara had survived. He couldn't have been truly suicidal. Now, however, she was starting to reconsider.

"Listen. I've been doin' this a lot longer than you. And I was right, wasn't I? Get over it, yeah."

Karin ran her hands through her choppy hair, willing the frustration away. No sense in blowing up at him and risking a lethal mood swing.

"Okay, whatever, just don't ever do that again. If we're in this together, then you should know I plan on actually staying alive to find Sasuke."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, this is perfect 'cause now I know where to look."

"How do you figure that?"

"_Well_," Deidara said, pushing off the tree and pacing around Karin. "Zetsu basically told us where Tobi—_Madara_ is."

He hid any hint of his previous tantrum over that name from his voice, but his chakra told a different story. Karin bit her lower lip, trying to ignore the telltale spike of anger only she could see.

"Actually, he said even he doesn't know where Madara is," Karin said evenly. As soon as she'd said it, a thought crossed her mind. "Unless you somehow know something Zetsu doesn't."

"Ding ding! We _have _a winner, ladies and gents!"

Deidara took a little bow, like this was his win and not Karin's despite his words. She crossed her arms and fixed him with a pointed look.

"Cut the bullshit, Deidara," she said.

"You're about as fun as a sack of manure, has anyone ever told you that?"

Karin grabbed his shirt front and yanked him down to her eye-level. "There's nothing _fun_ about blowing our cover to Akatsuki!"

Deidara screwed up his face like he couldn't see her properly. If Karin had a taste for humor, she may have laughed at him, but she did not. And this was _not _the time. Frustrated, she released him and put a healthy distance between them.

"You done?" he asked, making a show of dusting off his shirt.

Karin shot him a nasty look, but he just grinned.

"Like I was sayin', there's a place Tobi and I used to go to back when he was legally retarded. Called it his Super Secret Place or some gay shit like that. He'd buy like four pounds of candy and insist on stashin' it there. Weird part is he never let me in. I tried once, but the little worm somehow knew exactly what I was doin' and literally popped up to block me."

"You think Sasuke's hiding in a candy cave? You have got to be shitting me."

Deidara shook his head. "No fun at all, yeah."

"Just get to the point."

"So impatient. You remind me of my old partner. He was a real dick. Well, not technically. Pretty sure he didn't actually have one—"

"_Deidara_!"

"Fine, fine. So anyway, one time Tobi came outta there and I could smell blood on him."

"He's Madara. In retrospect, that's probably self-explanatory."

"Not if he was keeping up an act." Deidara got a faraway look in his eyes. The time for games was over. "He was hiding something in there. Something he didn't want the rest of Akatsuki to know about." He paused, thinking. "Y'know, he had these moments when he got really adamant about somethin' he didn't want me to see or know. He was always an asshat, but there was no gettin' around him when he was like that. It was the same with this cave, yeah."

Karin remained silent. What would it be like to know that a person with whom she'd trusted her life never existed? That he was actually Public Enemy No. 1 and could have killed her if the fancy struck him, did strike him, though he'd failed and she was still here and searching for him and even teaming up with a terrorist to do it, all for him and maybe a little for her, too—

She growled and pinched the bridge of her nose to end that train of thought. "Okay, so you think Madara could be holed up there with Sasuke?"

"You bet I do," Deidara said, cracking his knuckles.

Karin winced at the noise. _Crunch, crunch, crunch_, little bone saws.

"And if not, I can still pick up a trace of him there," Karin said. "Sasuke's with him. Even if they leave before we get there, I can track him."

"Exactly, yeah."

Karin's earlier frustration with Deidara waned a little with the prospect of making some real progress in locating Sasuke. She turned away from him and observed the sun, which was starting to dip in the sky. They would only have a few hours of daylight left.

"Okay. Where's this cave?"

Deidara smirked, like she'd just told a hilarious joke. "You're not gonna _like_ it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothin'. But we've got probably about four or five days of hard running ahead. Think you can keep up?"

Karin scowled. "Believe me. I can last longer than you."

Deidara laughed. "I'll keep that in mind, yeah."

He led her back toward the forest's edge and took to the trees in a northeasterly direction. Karin jumped up after him and they ran side by side. She prepared herself for a long few days, mentally groaning at the prospect of having only Deidara as a traveling companion.

* * *

Three days with Karin running almost non-stop was not the worst experience of Deidara's life, but it was definitely in the top five. They had to rough it in the great outdoors, which had never been a problem for Deidara nor, he suspected, for Karin, either. The problem was that each had his or her own way of doing things.

**Day One**

"Are you crazy? We can't make a fire. Someone'll see the smoke and come sniffing around here," Karin said.

Deidara rolled his eyes. "Listen, I dunno about you, but I'm not about to eat this fish raw, yeah."

"People eat raw fish all the time, idiot."

"Yeah, in _restaurants_. Idiot."

"I said no, Deidara. We've already risked detection once today. I'm not about to do it again."

"Well gee, Red. Unless you've got a big sushi knife hidden in that, uh," he gestured toward her chest area, "_outfit_ of yours, then we do it my way."

Karin shook with a rage so violent Deidara was sure she would hit him. At least chew him out. But she did neither. In fact, she remained silent as she instead walked right over his growing campfire and trampled all over it.

"What the hell!" Deidara said, springing to his feet.

He was too late, however, and only smoke rose from the charred pit. Karin stomped on the burned sticks one last time for good measure and kicked them back, sending a few scattering across the ground behind her.

"Goodnight," she said in that calm, fuck-off tone he was starting to associate with her.

Deidara watched her retreat and turn in under a tree for the night, incredulous at what she'd just perpetrated. He stood that way for a few minutes, dumbfounded, a part of him unable to rationalize why he hadn't killed her yet. But hunger won out, and he grumbled curses under his breath.

Pulling a kunai from a pocket in his blue jacket, he began filleting a fish and cutting it into slim strips to consume raw.

**Day Two**

"What are you doing with that?"

"What am I doing with what?"

"_That_." Karin indicated the armful of branches Deidara had gathered around the site of their camp for the night.

"I dunno what you're talkin' about, yeah."

"You were going to build a fire, weren't you."

"No."

"Bullshit."

"Are you callin' me a liar, Red?"

"I can sense when you lie. So yeah, I guess I am." She crossed her arms.

"Well, for your _information_, I'm building a shelter, yeah."

"You're lying again."

"Oh give it a fuckin' rest, will you? It's gonna be cold as balls out here tonight."

They were miles from where they'd been yesterday, having gotten as far north as Frost Country. In the summer there was no fear of snow or sleet, but the nights were chilly enough to be uncomfortable even in the middle of June. With the rainy season just around the corner, Deidara did not relish the thought of catching an early preview and getting soaked on top of freezing to death in his sleep.

He tried to sidestep Karin, but she moved with him and blocked his way. "Do you even understand your situation? If Akatsuki finds out you're alive, they'll be on us like vultures. And then we'll never have the chance to find Sasuke."

"I can handle whoever's dumb enough to show up, yeah."

He tried to get past her again, but Karin blocked him again.

"Oh for the love of—_move_, woman!"

"And let you get us both killed? I don't think so. You may not care whether you live or die, but I do."

"Ooooh, I'm touched."

Karin scrunched up her face like she'd just gotten a whiff of something rotten. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Uh-huh."

He sidestepped her one last time, and in her distraction she failed to stop him. Deidara dumped the sticks on the ground and set to work on the fire. Karin's booted feet in his line of vision nearly put him over the edge. It would be so easy to just break every toe on her feet so she couldn't go stomping around putting out fires.

"Look, if it's food you're worried about, there are plenty of things that don't need a fire. There's a ton of chickweed growing around here."

Deidara gave her a look like she had just suggested they cover themselves in animal scat and communicate only via birdcall. Something told him he better keep his mouth shut about that in case she got any ideas.

"It's gonna get colder the later it gets," Deidara said. "If you want to go veggie on me, fine, but you're gonna freeze that bony ass off without a fire, yeah."

Karin narrowed her eyes. "My ass is not bony, and I don't get cold easily."

Against his better judgment, Deidara's eyes drifted to the curve of her hip. _Definitely bony._ Karin saw what he was doing and kicked him in the chest.

"Ow! What the fuck!"

Karin huffed and marched off to gather plants for food, hiding her furious blush behind wild, red bangs. Deidara was too busy rubbing his abused body to care.

"Goddamned harpy," he muttered to himself.

Abandoning the fire for the second night, he instead focused on settling himself on the grass and preparing for a long night of shivering. The cold was already seeping through his long sleeves. A little while later, as he was dozing, something fell into his lap and he jerked awake, kunai in hand. Karin was already walking away from him, and in his lap was a bundle of green leaves. He stared at them for a moment, wondering what the hell she was trying to do to him now, when he remembered what she'd said about the chickweed. Suspicious, he sniffed at the leaves and, finding nothing too offensive about them, stuffed a few in his mouth.

They weren't awful, but the bitterness on the back of his tongue was less than pleasant. Still, they went down without a fuss. He watched her settle down a short distance away with her back to him, and his eyes drifted over her figure. A part of him thought he should say something, but it would probably draw her attention and he'd had enough of it for one day.

"Super bony," he said under his breath as he watched her lower herself to the ground and munch on her own meal.

**Day Three**

Having spent so many years with Sasori for a partner, Deidara had gained an uncanny capacity to be patient. The most impatient, narrow-minded people tended to require the most patience from those around them, Sasori being a prime example. No matter how much Deidara might complain about something or 'subtly' hint at his displeasure every chance he got, there was never any moving Sasori from the path he'd chosen. The only thing that had ever worked on Sasori was time.

Wait a while, and even the most pig-headed assholes could be persuaded.

Karin was so much like Sasori that Deidara caught himself wondering if their meeting hadn't been a coincidence, if Sasori had somehow made it happen. Even dead, the puppet master was still pulling strings.

Then again, while Deidara wouldn't put it past Sasori to have foreseen Deidara's downfall, he was pretty sure Sasori would have bet against him. The thought was a small personal victory.

"Who's eternal now, huh? Prick."

"Who're you talking to?" Karin asked.

Deidara rolled his eyes. "No one, yeah."

Karin didn't press the subject. They had broken for the night, and Deidara was determined to win the argument about the campfire this time. He'd seen her shivering last night, could hear her teeth chattering in the wee hours of the morning when it was her turn to keep watch. Wait a while, and the cold will eventually seep through even the toughest hide.

"I'll be back in a bit," Deidara said, disappearing into the trees before Karin could protest.

Contrary to his experiences with Karin, Deidara was more than capable of surviving in the outdoors alone for extended periods of time even without the possibility of fire. It was nearly impossible to find anything with which to make one in his native Stone Country, and Deidara had learned through experience and under Oonoki's harsh gaze how to suck it up. But he was a former Akatsuki who'd returned from the dead. He had a reputation now, and in the past he'd found most opponents preferred to walk away with their parts intact and still attached to their bodies rather than engage him. He could handle anyone who might come sniffing around, and the likelihood of them being Akatsuki was almost zero. Madara was with Sasuke, Kisame was in Lightning Country, and Zetsu was no threat at all. Aside from the three of them, there was no one in the world Deidara was wary of running into.

But he said nothing of this right away. Wearing Karin down was essential before he delivered the killing blow with his flawless reasoning. He grinned at the thought of her changing her tune and begging for a fire. A sound drew Deidara's attention, and when he spotted the culprit, his spirits soared.

_Yep, she'll be on those bony hands and knees begging tonight._

Back at the campsite, Karin was scouting out a good tree to sit in for the night watch. The last couple of nights she'd woken up with a nasty crick in her back from bad positioning. Not tonight, she vowed. She scoured the area's trees about a hundred yards in all directions from where Deidara had parted from her and, finally finding one that looked promising, climbed up the trunk. It was a little chillier today than it had been yesterday now that the sun had set and night was upon her, so she rolled down the sleeves of her lavender jacket for extra warmth.

She would never admit it, but Deidara had had a point last night about staying warm. Karin had never been this far north, and while it was hot and balmy during the day, the nights were chilly enough to be uncomfortable after prolonged periods of inactivity. She plopped down on a sturdy branch and looked around. Her senses told here there was no one around for miles, and she relaxed just a little.

"Hey Red, gotcha a present, yeah."

Karin sighed and didn't bother looking down. "You shouldn't have, really."

He probably shouldn't have, she thought to herself. Whatever it was couldn't be good. Deidara was probably the last person on earth from whom she would ever want a present. Knowing him, it would probably blow up in her face, literally.

"You gonna come down or do I have to drag your bony ass down myself?"

Karin held back a nasty insult and slipped down from her perch. "Stop talking about my ass, pervert."

Deidara said nothing as he grinned and held out her 'present'.

"...You killed a rabbit."

"Yeah, pretty sweet, huh?"

Karin stared at the dead animal Deidara held up by its elongated back legs. "You know what? I didn't know you had the ability to hunt something so fast and quiet."

"Please, your praise is too much, yeah."

She rolled her eyes. "I hate to break it to you, but raw rabbit isn't exactly making my mouth water."

"Duh, let's build a fire."

"Deidara, we talked about this."

He turned and shot her a look of confusion over his shoulder. "But aren't you hungry?"

Karin hesitated. "Well, yeah, but there's chickweed and—"

"And last night was rough. I heard you chattering all night, don't lie."

She crossed her arms, suddenly feeling a chill. "It was colder than I thought it would be."

"Soooo, help me get some firewood."

She shook her head. "We can't. If someone sees—"

"—then I'll blast 'em. Easy."

Deidara tossed the rabbit on the ground and started looking around for dry kindling. Karin followed, at her wit's end.

"You don't know who's out there. They might be stronger than you. It's too risky."

Deidara laughed. "You know what you're problem is? You're so worried about what's gonna happen next that you can't appreciate what's happening now. Live a little, Red. Tonight, we're havin' a hot meal, so shut up about it, yeah."

Karin opened her mouth to respond, but found difficulty forming the words. They picked up whatever dry branches and twigs they could find, and she was still warring within herself.

"You don't know who could be watching. This mission's important, and if we get ambushed—"

"—I'll handle it," he interrupted. He handed her the pile of branches he'd picked up and Karin shifted her weight to accommodate them. "I'm no _Sasuke_," he waved his hand and made a face as he spat the name, "but I know what I'm doin'. Don't forget that he couldn't kill me. I _think_ I can handle whatever's out there."

Karin's first instinct was to defend Sasuke, but she bit her tongue. Real food sounded good, and the whole reason she'd teamed up with Deidara was because he was good at what he did. He could protect them both, and she knew it. But she didn't have to like it.

Deidara was gone and preparing a fire pit as Karin mulled over their situation. "Hey! Get over here already. I'm starvin', yeah."

"Don't tell me what to do!" she snapped.

But she complied without further fuss and helped Deidara set up the fire pit. He skinned the rabbit carcass with the ease of a trained professional, like he'd done this a million times in the past, and set it over the fire on a makeshift spit. A quick fire technique got a blaze going. It was only a matter of time before dinner would be ready, and now that she could smell it cooking, Karin's mouth began to water.

"Y'know, I knew you'd come around," Deidara said to her across the fire pit.

Karin searched him for an ulterior motive, but she couldn't make out anything beyond that damned stupid smirk. "I still think this is a bad idea."

"Women usually tell me that when they meet me, yeah."

Karin rolled her eyes. "Smooth, real smooth."

"Aw come on, you know girls like guys with a mean streak. Somethin' dangerous to make things interesting. Even you."

Karin set her jaw and averted her eyes to the roasting rabbit, which began to sizzle. "What the hell do you know about women?"

He shot her a knowing look. "More than you, obviously."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Hey, I think the food's done, yeah."

Karin's anger seemed unimportant when faced with the prospect of a hot meal. She and Deidara used kunai to tear away pieces of roasted meat and fill their bellies.

"Oh _god_, that's good. Much better than that veggie crap you were force-feeding me yesterday."

Karin had half a mind to tell him to fuck off (she had totally saved him from starving to death, thank you very much), but the food was too good and too important. They wolfed down dinner in a matter of minutes, and afterward Deidara leaned back against a nearby tree trunk.

"Ahhh that hit the spot."

Karin said nothing as she, too, sat back and relaxed. The warmth from the fire staved off night's chill, and she held her hands up to it. Deidara had his eyes closed, so she inched a little closer.

"For the record, I'm not above sayin' I told you so, yeah."

"And I'm not above reminding you that if someone finds us, it's on you."

He waved her off. "Hey, we had a deal. You find Sasuke, and I'll protect you. I'm not gonna change my mind so long as he's still the world's number one douchebag on the run."

Karin frowned, but a part of her took comfort in his words. Alone, she could not do this, and it had crossed her mind that he would turn around and betray her halfway through. Words meant little and promises even less, but they did offer a comfort. And she wanted to believe him, strangely enough. The idea of Deidara doing something like betraying a partner, no matter how poorly they got along, didn't fit him. Probably because of how she'd seen him react to the truth about Tobi.

"Take the first watch, Red. I'm tired."

"Lazy ass."

"Better'n a bony ass, yeah."

Karin got to her feet and made to knock him over with a well-aimed foot to the shoulder, but he caught her ankle. Slowly, he opened his eye to look up at her.

"You're, like, really violent, y'know?"

"Believe me, you haven't seen me get violent."

He bared his teeth in the grin. "Lookin' forward to it, yeah."

Karin yanked her foot away and he let her go, watching in silence as she made quick work of a nearby tree and settled in for the night. Deidara lay back and closed his eyes again, still grinning.

* * *

On the fourth day of travel, Deidara was sure that whole 'third time's the charm' luck that had worked last night when he finally won the campfire argument had worn off. Karin trudged a short ways behind him, and while she was silent he could _feel_ the murderous aura she radiated.

"Y'know, to be fair, I _did_ warn you you wouldn't like the trip, yeah."

Karin's foot squelched. "You didn't say anything about a _swamp_."

"I didn't? Oh, guess it slipped my mind."

"Goddamn punk-ass twat..." Karin muttered to herself.

To get to Tobi's secret cave, they had to cross over Swamp County. Normally, in the winter, this place was no big deal. Not that Deidara had first-hand experiences; he'd only ever flown over it when he came this way with Tobi.

_First time for everything._

Summer was not Swamp Country's best season. The mud, which was really nothing more than a natural sewage dump in Deidara's opinion, was not only deep and thick, but it also reeked of decomposing plant and animal matter. Deidara had given up any hope of staying marginally clean with the mud halfway up his calves. Worse than the terrain, however, was the sun. While nights were chilly, the afternoons were sweltering, and few trees offered any respite from its overbearing heat. Karin, he noticed, had long ago put her hair up in some kind of knot. Deidara was tempted to follow her example.

Every once in awhile, Deidara saw something thick and long slither through the muddy water nearby, and he did his best to ignore it. Hot, sweating, and smelling like an old shoe, this was not exactly Deidara's idea of a day under the sun. Flying would have been so much better, with the wind in his hair and the bayou a thousand feet below. Anonymity sucked.

"Hot as balls out here, yeah."

"I had _no _idea."

"I'm just tryin' to make conversation, Red. Don't get your panties in a twist."

"How much farther is it?"

"Should be another couple miles before we're outta this shit hole. Then another day's run to the cave. There's a river on the way, so we can clean up, yeah."

"Good. Let's keep mov—AAAAHHH!"

Deidara whirled, his hands molding explosive clay and ready to blow the place sky high at a moment's notice. Karin was on her side in the mud and glaring death at something Deidara couldn't make out.

"What the hell?" he asked, looking around for an actual threat and finding none.

Karin kicked out with a leg and the lumpy thing went flying. It soared over Deidara's head and landed just behind him with a _plop._

"...A bullfrog? Really?"

The fat amphibian rolled over until it was upright again, then hopped off. Deidara turned back to Karin, who was still red in the face with anger and probably embarrassment now that she was wading in the mud.

"Oh..."

Karin caught Deidara's eye, and he could practically smell the warning in them, but it was no use.

"Shit, it's in your hair!"

Karin struggled to stand, but she slipped in the slippery swamp gunk and fell flat on her rear. Deidara couldn't take it anymore. He burst out laughing and gestured to her, trying to speak through peals of laughter and tell her more about where she was muddy.

"Deidara, cut it out!"

"—fucking _everywhere_! God, I wish I had a camera!" he managed in between guffaws.

He laughed so hard his sides ached. Karin fell silent, but he couldn't care less. He would never forget the sight of her like that, like a wet cat ready to castrate the first thing she could get her hands on.

_Splat!_

Deidara's laughter ceased so abruptly that only the echo lingered for a second or two. Something hot and sticky clung to the side of his face, plastering his long bangs to his cheek. He touched a hand to it and came away with a hunk of mud between his fingers. Some of it was in his nose, and she spit to get it all out. The putrid stench lingered.

"Ohhhh Red, you shouldna done that, yeah."

"You shouldn't have laughed at me!"

Karin had managed to get back to her feet, leaving her left arm and part of her middle clean. She had a handful of mud in her hand, and her normally sharp, red eyes were wide and wary of him. Deidara grinned and kneeled down to scoop up some more mud.

"Hey, what're you doing? Put that down."

"Oh no no no, _you_ started this. And you're gonna end it, yeah!"

He flung the mud at her and hit her square in the chest. Karin moved with the hit, spinning easily atop the slippery ground, and hurled her own shot at him, which caught him in the shoulder.

"Eat this!" Deidara shouted as he flung two more handfuls at her.

Karin lunged at him and collided with his middle. Deidara went down, and Karin didn't give him a moment to recover. She scooped up more mud and attempted to bury him under it.

"Hey! Quit that!"

They rolled around a bit, and Deidara finally broke free of her, but he was covered in swamp slime.

"Oh, _now _you're gonna get it, yeah."

Karin flashed him a fierce smirk and gathered up new mud balls to fling at him. Back and forth, it was a slow game that had them pulling out some of their best evasive maneuvers but failing miserably due to the slippery terrain. Deidara jumped to avoid a shot to his face, but he slipped and ended up face-planting instead. When he looked up and wiped the grime from his face, now indiscernible from the muddy floor, Karin pointed and laughed at him. She fell back on her rear again, shaking with laughter.

Deidara's first instinct was to tell her to shut the fuck up, she looked like no prize herself right now, but he cut himself off. Her face was smeared with mud in places, and it was a miracle her glasses were still mostly clean. It was in her hair, in her clothes, everywhere. But he barely noticed as she continued to laugh, low and rich for a girl her size, the kind that made cheeks hurt from smiling too much.

When she realized he wasn't retaliating or even saying anything, she started to calm down and opened her eyes. The last vestiges of giggles clung to her, and she continued to smile all over, even in those cold, mean eyes. Deidara just stared, marvelling at the change in her. Like she'd become a totally different person. He'd thought her older than him, but now he could see she was much closer to his age, maybe even a little younger. Even as the laughter wore off and she caught her breath, traces of it remained, softening her features. It was contagious, and he smiled back.

"What're you looking at?" she said, trying to regain her usual edge but failing.

Deidara shook his head. "Nothin', I just never heard you laugh before. Or even smile. Didn't think you knew how."

Karin held his gaze, her shoulders still heaving from the laughing fit and her unmuddied patches of cheek flushed red from the heat and the moment. Just like that, she composed herself and banished all remnants of her previous joviality. Like it had never happened at all.

Something shifted in the air between them, a familiar feeling Deidara only ever noticed when he was alone and doing what he loved best. All of a sudden, he saw her, what she had been in that moment, now gone, but still a part of her and still fresh in his mind, branded there. His mouth went dry.

"Of course I know how. There's just usually nothing worth laughing about," she said.

Deidara shrugged. "I dunno, watching you fall on your ass a couple times back there was definitely something to laugh about, yeah."

"Please, if this were a competition, I'd say you falling flat on your face took the cake."

"What can I say? I'm fucking hilarious."

She said nothing to that, happy to give him the last word for now as she pulled herself up and offered him a hand, too. "Come on. The longer we stay out here, the worse we're gonna smell. I think this stuff's already drying in my hair, ugh."

Deidara eyed her offered hand and reached for it, grinning. Karin realized her mistake too late, and he yanked her back down into the mud. He whooped with laughter, uncaring that she punched at him in blind fury.

"Son of a bitch!"

"Your face! Aw man, you look like Swamp Thing, I swear!"

When they got up again, Karin did _not_ give him a hand up or even wait for him as she marched off to the north, determined to put some distance between them. He followed, careful not to come in range of her lest she aim lower next time.

* * *

Flash a Hunter's mask and most people took it as an invitation to talk now or never again. Yugao didn't enjoy the reputation most Hunter nin had, but it served a purpose. The small town she and Baki had tracked their targets to proved a fruitful stop. A local innkeeper remembered the pair, but he had nothing out of the ordinary to report.

"Deidara's keeping a low profile. I didn't think he was even capable," Baki had said as he and Yugao left town and headed northeast.

"He's an S-class shinobi for a reason."

Baki said nothing further, taking the hint from her curt tone, but the tension between them was thick enough to cut and serve up with a side of awkward. Since they began this hunt and up until now, about a week in, Baki had been polite and formal, never pushing her for conversation beyond the details of their mission. She appreciated it, but just being around the guy was enough to drive her mad.

Their first night together, she'd stood over him as he slept during her watch shift, a katana aimed at his forehead and ready to kill if she would just drive her arms down. She'd stayed like that for several minutes, unable to follow through but unable to pull away. Even now she couldn't really say what had convinced her to give it up. It was easy enough to blame it on the alliance between Konoha and Suna, and she dismissed it as that even though she knew it to be a lie.

_He wouldn't want this_, a voice rang in her head.

To which Yugao had responded by impaling an unsuspecting shrub instead.

"He's dead," she muttered to herself. "No one can say what he would want anymore."

She didn't try to kill Baki again after that first night, knowing she'd never go through with it no matter how much she denied that quiet voice in her head.

About a day or so out of town, Yugao had lost Deidara and Karin's trail in the middle of the woods.

"What's the matter?"

Yugao kept still as her senses searched for a trace, anything at all. "It just disappeared into thin air."

"How is that possible?"

Yugao shook her head. "Karin is supposed to be an excellent sensor, one of the best in the world according to the Hokage's intel. It wouldn't be beyond her capabilities to mask Deidara's and her chakra."

"Are you saying we've lost them?"

She did not like the tone in Baki's voice, and she glared. "When a sensor wants to hide, she can do it better than any other shinobi. Karin's skilled enough to hide Deidara, too, but it means she can't use her technique while she does it, not with the level of concentration it takes. There's no way she did it for long."

"And?"

Yugao growled and tapped Baki's chest hard with her fingers. "And I can probably pick up her trail nearby. They were headed northeast. There's no reason to think they didn't keep going that way."

Baki watched her with a dark intensity that betrayed his inner annoyance at her manhandling. Her silent treatment, curt responses to his questions, and generally sour mien since they'd started this mission were grating on his nerves, she could tell, and she felt zero sympathy for him. The bastard deserved it, as far as she was concerned. Maybe she couldn't get revenge for Hayate, but she could damn well make his killer's life a little more miserable. It was petty, perhaps, but Yugao didn't mind sinking to such a level for her lover's murderer.

As usual, Baki said nothing even though she could practically taste his thoughts for how palpable his irritation was. Yugao didn't wait for him as she turned north deeper into the woods and away from the gorge's edge where they'd lost the trail.

"This way," she said, not bothering to look back.

Baki followed. The roar of the river below was a welcome distraction to help her concentrate, feel for even the faintest hint of a chakra leak to point her in the right direction. It was the only sound they heard for the next five days of almost complete silence.

Yugao picked up Karin and Deidara's trail again near a small village, though it had grown stale. They were keep up a rigorous pace, almost like they were in a hurry to get somewhere, though Yugao couldn't imagine where or why. It was a thought she was forced to share with Baki once they came upon Swamp Country and the trail veered into the endless, muddy morass.

Yugao pulled her long, violet hair back into a top knot to stave off the heat and prepare for a trek through the bog. As if things couldn't get any worse.

"You have got to be kidding," Baki said as they stood at the edge of the vast swampland. "Are you absolutely positive they went this way?"

"Are you doubting my abilities?"

"No, just their sanity. A bog like this will have slowed them down considerably. For two shinobi on the run, it's not an ideal thruway."

"They're criminals. They don't mind getting their hands dirty. Or their feet."

Yugao waded into the muck and slowly progressed. She tried to ignore the putrid stench of rotten life and excrement squelching under her boots. Baki followed behind, swearing under his breath. She rolled her eyes.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of a little mud, Baki."

"More what's been here before us."

Yugao snorted and kept going, deriving a meager modicum of schadenfreude from his distress.

"You know, they seem to be heading somewhere with purpose," Baki said after about twenty minutes of trekking. "And they're in a hurry. We weren't so far behind to begin with."

Yugao gritted her teeth. "Guess that's the first thing we've ever agreed upon. This calls for a celebration."

The squelching behind her stopped and she turned to see that Baki was just standing in the mud, his lone visible eye glaring at her.

"Okay. I've had about enough of this passive-aggressive act. If you're still sore about what happened with Hayate, then you could at least try to kill me in my sleep again."

Yugao gaped at him. The embarrassment she felt that he knew of her midnight attempt and had done nothing to stop it made her sweat more profusely under the scorching afternoon sun. But the fury his words elicited beat out any shred of ignominy.

"Don't you _dare_ mention his name," she said, her voice low and feral.

"One of us had to eventually," Baki shot back. "We might as well get it out in the open now so we can concentrate on the mission—"

"Fuck you," Yugao interrupted. "You don't get to talk about him. And you don't get to treat him like some bump in the road here. Fuck you."

"That's it, let it out."

Yugao's hands shook. One moment, she was simmering but calm, and now she was so close to ending the Konoha-Suna alliance herself and not regretting it. She drew her katana and aimed it at Baki.

"The only reason I'm here is because of my orders. I wasn't planning to get into this with you, but it seems like that's no longer an option. So now, you get to deal with it."

Baki reached behind his shoulder and drew his own katana. "Fine by me. If you don't deal with it, it'll continue to mess with our working relationship."

Yugao could barely see straight. The anger had infected her, taken over. Who the hell did he think he was, talking like he had all the answers, like she was the one overreacting when he'd _murdered her fiancé_?

Fuck that.

"We don't _have _a relationship!" she shouted as she ran at him.

Chakra flowed from her fingertips to power her sword, and she slashed the air to create a genjutsu illusion of shadows, mirror images of herself, just like Hayate had once taught her long ago. Baki brought up his own sword to defend, his dark eye searching for the real Yugao among her afterimages. A clash of metal, a flash of sparks, and the shock of chakra that rattled both their bodies and blew them apart. Yugao skidded across the bayou, down on one knee and sinking deeper into the mud but undeterred. Chakra sizzled the air around Baki as he powered up his technique. Any caution or apprehension Yugao may have felt about this evaporated. He was going to pay. Now was the time.

She ran at him again.

It was not as graceful as she would have liked it to be. The mud made it impossible to get solid footing, and Baki picked up on that as he waited for her to come to him. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Jumping with all her might, Yugao launched high into the air and tessellated, her real body moving faster than the naked eye could see. Baki met her blade for blade, and his sharpened chakra singed the air all around them. Cuts bloomed on Yugao's arms.

"Murderer! I'll kill you!"

Baki fended her off, barely. "Try it."

He gave first and rolled to the left, uncaring of the new skin of mud he wore. Yugao gave chase, relentless in her pursuit. Slash, dip, jab, slash again. Her movements were fluid, connected, like those of a trained dancer. This was her comfort zone, her native tongue, the confidence Hayate had imparted to her before this man had brutally murdered him in cold blood. The thought brought tears to Yugao's dark eyes, but she fought through them.

Baki parried her blows with skill and chakra, his exceptional speed just enough to keep up with her. They were evenly matched, both gifted with the sword, and that meant their weaknesses were the same. He parried a slash and freed up his right hand to punch her in the stomach. Yugao took the hit, seeing stars, but she hadn't been recruited for ANBU as a child for no reason. She moved with the blow, gritting her teeth to the pain, and sank to the ground. The momentum channeled into her feet, which she used to clock Baki just below the knees. He grunted in pain and went down.

Tense seconds passed as Yugao recovered her breath from Baki's punch, and Baki struggled to sit upright on hands and knees. Small cuts riddled Yugao's arms, and they stung from the mud that got inside them. She took some solace in the knowledge that she'd sliced him, too, that he wasn't so perfect as to see through her technique every step of the way. Somewhere nearby, a fat bullfrog croaked as it watched them regain composure, enjoying the show.

They were covered in mud. It was all over Baki's front and even in the veil hiding his left eye. Swearing, he ripped it off and pocketed it. Yugao stared at the thick scar where his eye should have been. After the rush of adrenaline had worn off, she felt less inclined to beat him into the ground. Curiosity got the better of her.

"What happened?"

Baki looked up at her and guessed her meaning right away. "Chuunin exams. I fought Uchiha Shisui."

Yugao snered. "You probably deserved it."

"Sure did. I beat him, though."

They sat in silence for a moment, sweating under the heat of the afternoon sun. The smell was starting to get to Yugao, musty, like something had died and decomposed here. The bullfrog continued to watch them with dark, watery eyes. Sighing, she pulled herself up and slaked some of the mud off her pants, for all the good it did. She could already feel the stuff drying over her like a stinky cocoon. Baki was stretching out the leg she'd hit him in, and she wondered if he was still in pain.

Everything in her soul told her to hate him, and she did, through and through. They had to work together, but she didn't have to like him. But out here in the middle of nowhere chasing a couple of dangerous criminals and covered in mud, hating him wasn't the highest thing on her list of priorities anymore. It felt good to lash out, make him hurt. She hoped that slash on his forearm stung as much as the chakra cuts he'd given her.

But he was her partner out here, and Yugao was a professional. Sucking it up, she held out a hand for him to take.

"Come on. Let's get out of this dump."

Baki eyed her offered hand with no small degree of suspicion. "I agree."

Reluctantly, he took her hand and she hauled him up, perhaps a bit too forcefully, but he didn't complain. Nearly a head taller than her, Yugao had to look up to catch his eye and the scar that remained from a hard battle long ago. She pressed her lips together.

"Well, come on."

Baki watched her go, giving her some space. He let out the breath he'd been holding and followed at a sedate pace so as not to disturb the aching below his knee.

A part of him was glad he'd fought Hayate and not her all those years ago. If it had been the other way around, he probably wouldn't be here now.

* * *

River water was not the ideal bathing ground, but it served Karin's purposes. Foregoing any sort of ritual, she plunged into the icy depths fully clothed. The river was swollen in the summers with snowmelt, but Karin did not wish for the sweltering heat of the marsh she and Deidara had just traversed. A part of her suspected that no matter how hard she scrubbed her skin, the heinous stink of that place would never come out.

One by one, Karin peeled off her layers of clothing until she was simply floating and letting the current rinse her clean. Deidara was somewhere downstream, so she had some precious moments of silence to enjoy the cold water and hot sun. Righting herself, the water reached just below Karin's bellybutton. She took a moment to run a hand over the scars lining her arms and shoulders, tracing teeth imprints, some smooth, some crooked. Some were hardly recognizable, the brands of monsters too afraid to be careful with her.

Some were Sasuke's.

Karin could heal any injury, even some terminal illnesses, but she could not heal the marks they left behind. She remembered every one, every story, every blackout and every quid-pro-quo. Only Sasuke had been gentle with her, and she hadn't minded retaining his scars. Even now, she didn't mind. But she had to wonder if she'd ever been able to help at all. If even after every time she'd put him back together, she was really fixing him or just rearranging the broken pieces, hoping this time they might hold together a little longer.

"_Karin, you saved me."_

"For what?" she asked the empty space around her. "So you could turn around and..."

She hated thinking about it. About how she hadn't been able to save him when he'd needed help the most. Worse, he hadn't wanted help. The increasing malevolence in his chakra, his uncharacteristic disdain for her and the rest of the team, a team that had set aside its narcissism to save him. The look in his eyes, like he'd died that night with the rest of his family and only now remembered as he cut through her to get to Danzō. An obstacle, a burden, just another loved one to sacrifice for his ultimate vendetta.

"_Karin, I need you."_

"Goddamnit, Sasuke," she said, squeezing her upper arms and suddenly feeling the cold. "Goddamnit."

"Where'd you get all those scars?"

Karin bit back a yelp and submerged herself underwater with a splash. When she resurfaced, it was only to her jawline. Without her glasses, Deidara was too blurry to make out beyond an outline and his loud coloring, but she glared all the same.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing peeping at me?" she demanded.

He shifted, and she imagined him making that dumb confused face at her like he'd just gotten a whiff of something sour. "Hey, I wasn't peeping at you. 'Sides, it's nothin' I haven't seen before, so don't flatter yourself, yeah."

Karin was getting ready to throw a rock at him, anything to hurt him, when she realized he was stark naked. Squinting, she couldn't make him out well, but there was no denying it. "_Why_ are you watching me naked? You fucking pervert!"

"Uh, my clothes're drying, obviously. I don't have anything else, yeah."

"Oh my god," Karin grumbled.

The water was starting to prickle her skin with cold, and staying in any longer would become very uncomfortable very fast. "Whatever, just leave so I can get out already."

"Why d'you have all those scars? You never answered my question."

"Deidara, I will _hurt you_."

"Well, I'm not leavin' until you tell me. You'll just have to come out naked, yeah."

Karin tugged at her clean hair hard enough to hurt. They'd been getting along sort of well earlier, and he had to ruin it with this now. There was no doubt in Karin's mind that Deidara was a jackass, more insufferable than both Suigetsu and Sasuke, and her enemy at the end of the day. But she was not about to give him the satisfaction of coercing her into revealing secrets he had no right to hear. Steeling herself and thanking her poor vision for once in her life, Karin held her head high and marched right out of the water. She could feel it run down her body, chilly rivulets running from the scorching heat of the sun. Deidara just stared.

"Okay, that's an unexpected twist," he said.

Karin barely heard him as she swiped a flat rock from the shore and chucked it at him. It connected with his shoulder, and he yelped.

"Get the _hell away from me_, you goddamned lech!"

"I resent that!"

Deidara stumbled back toward the trees and jogged downriver where he belonged, away from her flying rock projectiles. Huffing, Karin threw her long hair over her shoulder and stomped back toward where her clothing lay on the shore to dry. She held onto another rock in case Deidara came back.

_The things I do for you, Sasuke._

* * *

Once their clothes were dry, Karin and Deidara kept a rigorous pace on their way to find Tobi's cave. Well into nightfall, Deidara called for a halt; they would be upon the cave soon, and he wanted to do it in daylight just in case. Karin did not argue with that, and after a night's rest (and no further mention of Karin's exposure to him) the pair found themselves staring at the cave entrance from the trees. Deidara was unusually quiet, and Karin was loathe to speak up. Something about his silence reminded her of the way Sasuke would get when Taka got a lead on Itachi. It was a silence she would rue if she broke it.

"Tell me what you see," Deidara said, not looking at Karin.

This was the Deidara she'd recruited to protect her, the criminal mastermind that was every bit the reputation he'd earned. This was the man who could have, should have killed off Sasuke had his own prided insanity not gotten in the way. Karin did not argue and let her senses explore. Chakra residue, old trails left behind from the ninja that had been here before, fired to life in her mind's eye like smoldering will-o-wisps. Purple and blue, some red, intermingled. They echoed here, but their source was long gone.

"There's no one here," she said. "But Sasuke was here; I can feel his chakra. Madara was with him. They've got several days on us, at least."

Deidara rose and abandoned the hiding place without a word. When Karin didn't follow, he said, "Come on. We don't have all day, yeah."

He disappeared into the cave and Karin jogged to catch up, her senses on high alert for even the ghost of another presence in the area. There was none, but she could not relax. Deidara walked at a sedate pace just ahead of her, but she didn't walk beside him. The smell of old blood was thick in the air the deeper they went, and Karin had a flash of her past living in Sound where this smell had become a part of her, so much that she was sure others could detect it on her even now.

"Guess the son of a bitch was hiding more than candy in here," Deidara said.

Karin frowned and walked around him into a wide chamber at the back of the cave. A stainless steel table sat in the middle, nailed into the stone floor. Old, used bedding sat against the right wall, hastily discarded, along with old bandages bloody from use. But Karin disregarded all this to follow Deidara's line of sight to the back wall and the small, glass tanks extending from floor to ceiling.

They each contained a Sharingan eye.

"What the hell?" Karin said, unwilling to believe her eyes.

Deidara walked past her and reached out a hand to touch the smooth glass tanks. A hundred red eyes stared back at him, unblinking and perfectly preserved. He said nothing, did nothing. These very eyes were the cause of so much grief in his life, yet he barely reacted. Karin did not know him well enough to guess what he was really thinking, though she knew it could not be good. He was too angry at Sasuke, too angry at the loss he'd suffered that wasn't really a loss at all. There was more to Deidara than even Karin's unrivalled sight could see.

Maybe that had been Sasuke's mistake.

"Deidara," she said.

He turned to look at her, and she resisted the urge to avert her gaze. "We're wasting our time here. They're long gone, yeah."

"I can track them from here."

"Good."

When he said nothing further but made no move to leave, Karin asked the question that had been plaguing her since they set foot in this eerie place. "Did you know about this?"

There was a short lapse of silence, vulnerable, as a hundred dead eyes bore into them both. Waiting. Deidara shifted his weight. "There's a lot I didn't know, yeah."

For all her powers of observation, Karin could not imagine what he was thinking beyond the obvious, and it floored her. His complaining, his easy laughter, all of it...an act? Or just part of someone far more faceted than met the eye? She didn't know enough about him, but a growing part wondered if he'd show her. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Karin dismissed it. Deidara was still her enemy, still hell-bent on killing Sasuke. He was no friend of hers despite this temporary alliance.

"Let's get outta here. This places gives me the creeps," Deidara said after a moment, heading back outside.

Karin followed and immediately focused on the trail Sasuke had left behind. "They're far away, but the trail's good," she said. "They're heading east."

"Okay, let's get a move on, Red. Lead the way."

Karin took to the trees and Deidara stayed close by. With the swamp far behind them, Karin was feeling a little better about this journey. Geographically, she placed them somewhere in northern Cliff Country heading east toward the border with Hot Water. It seemed that Sasuke and Madara were avoiding large shinobi populations. Hot Water Country was a safe haven for rogues, pariahs, and those unwelcome anywhere else. Yūgakure was a small ninja village that had fallen into disarray due to poor governing and corruption. The place was a cesspool for all kinds of shinobi scum nowadays.

Their trip was made in silence, which wasn't unusual, but the scene they had witnessed back in the cave gave it a sense of foreboding. She could let Deidara brood over whatever was bothering him, or she could risk breaking the silence. The sight of his smile as he bled in that seedy bar back in Fire Country was not one she ever wanted to see again.

Still, the silence was getting to her in a way it never had before. Karin pushed her glasses farther up her nose and steeled her resolve.

"What does Madara want with Sasuke?" she ventured as they flew through the treetops.

Deidara scowled. "Hell if I know. You _really_ think I'm the person to ask what people see in Uchiha Sasuke?"

Karin rolled her eyes. "You were Akatsuki. _And _you were Madara's partner. You must know something—"

"Well I don't know shit, so quit askin', yeah."

The bitterness in his tone caught her by surprise, and Karin suddenly understood. He'd reacted this way before, though she'd thought little of it, considering it not her problem. Now, she wasn't so sure. To learn his entire partnership, the one person he was supposed to be able to depend on was a lie... Karin frowned.

"Listen, Deidara, about Madara..."

"There's nothin' to say."

"Well, you don't have to be a dick about it. I get it, okay? You're angry about Madara lying to you this whole time."

Deidara snorted, but he was not amused. "So you're gonna tell me I should just get over it, right? That what you did when Sasuke let Konoha take you prisoner?"

"No," Karin hissed. "I'm not about to forgive that piece of shit for what he did to me—"

She cut herself off, and Deidara glanced at her askance.

"Look, all I'm saying is I don't blame you for being pissed, okay? So stop looking at me like that."

Karin focused on the path ahead, squinting her eyes to the wind that passed her by. Beside her, Deidara's feet were light as they propelled him from branch to branch, a soft and familiar rhythm.

"Yeah," he said after a while. "Thanks."

Karin side-eyed him, but he was looking ahead and didn't notice. There were words on the tip of her tongue, but she held them in. There was no need to interrupt the silent truce they had reached.

* * *

Crossing the border into Yūgakure turned out to be more of an ordeal than Karin would have liked. Deidara, on the other hand, was less perturbed. In fact, he was brimming with pent up vigor.

"So lemme get this straight," he drawled, gesturing to the four shinobi blocking the path. "You pussyfoots want, uh, 50,000 ryo for passage."

The leader of the four-man gang, a slender man with a nose large enough to blot out any other facial features, sputtered. "Who the hell're you calling 'pussyfoot'? Either you pay or you die. Take yer pick."

"Deidara, let's just find another way around. It's not worth risking exposure," Karin said, yanking on her companion's long sleeve.

Deidara sighed dramatically. "Let me handle this, Red. You just sit tight and look constipated. You're good at that, yeah."

"Son of a—"

Karin tried to yank him close to punch him in the jaw, but Deidara slipped from her grasp just in time to save himself. The sun was going down and they would have to find shelter and food soon, having gone all day without sustenance. The four rogues seemed determined to get in their way, however.

"So, what's it gonna be, pretty boy?" the head rogue said.

His companions stood behind him, menacing in their own right. One was at least two heads taller than Deidara, muscular, stupid. Another was a middle-aged woman who looked about ready to fall asleep, and the fourth was a short, stocky shinobi who kept eyeing Karin like she was a juicy steak. When he winked at her and licked his lips, she flashed him a poisonous glare and her middle finger. Unfortunately, this only made him grin wider.

"_Well_," Deidara said, throwing up his arms. "I'm not really the generous type. Guess you'll just have to kill us."

"Deidara!" Karin hissed.

"Looks like your woman feels different," the head rogue said. "You should listen to her."

"Or we could take her off yer hands," said the stocky shinobi, still ogling Karin.

Karin stepped forward and pulled the kunai Deidara had given her on their first meeting from her sleeve. "Try it, you little gremlin."

Never one to fight first, ask questions later, Karin found herself facing four enemy shinobi head on. Shinobi with more experience than she had, undoubtedly. She'd heard her fair share of misogynistic slurs in Sound and at the Southern Hideout, enough to toughen her hide and sharpen her tongue. She'd never had much trouble standing up for herself, especially given her rank in Orochimaru's entourage as a warden. With Taka, no one dared stoop to such pitiful means to cut her down. Not because they knew better, but because her teammates worked fast. With Taka, she had not feared much for her safety. With Sasuke, she had never needed any reassurances.

But with Deidara...

"Y'know, normally I wouldn't give a shit," Deidara said. He put a hand on Karin's shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "But you got it all wrong; she's not _anyone_'s woman, yeah."

Before Karin had a chance to respond, Deidara slipped away and unleashed a hail of senbon from who knew where. The four rogues snapped to attention and escaped the attack, buying Deidara and Karin a couple seconds to regroup. He caught her eye briefly as he let his hand slip away to march into the heat of battle (an unnecessary battle _he'd _had the gall to start and drag _her _into). Upon Karin's shoulder, a small, clay spider latched onto her jacket just within the wisps of her hair, almost unnoticeable. There was no time to question it, no time to second-guess Deidara now.

She could only trust him.

The thing hadn't blown her head off yet, she thought. Any further internal debate ceased as the battle exploded all around. Karin crouched and ran, her Mind's Eye of the Kagura on full alert to the enemy and to Deidara, should the idiot get himself into trouble. The four rogues were no pushovers. Their chakra was strong and healthy compared to Deidara's and Karin's after so long in the wilderness. She wasn't tired, but she wasn't at full capacity, and past experience taught Karin that that could be the difference between life and death if she wasn't careful.

So she was careful.

Falling back, she followed Deidara's chakra through the rising smoke and debris that soon occluded all possible pathways to safety or suicide. The explosions were not the loud, sonorous kind that had made him infamous; they were clipped, little _pop_s like firecrackers. She almost wanted to grin at his attempt to be discreet.

A stray kunai whizzed by Karin's ear, narrowly missing its target due to her sensitive reflexes. The spider on her shoulder held tight, silent. She had to think. Four on two were not terrible odds, but so far she'd done little to participate. And Deidara was blind in there. As if on cue, his laughter cut through the haze, rich and edged with something that sent a painful shiver up her spine.

_Focus._

_He's on your side._

Karin hoped the enemy recognized the promise in that laughter as easily as she did. The enemy kunoichi powered up a wind technique to disperse the smoke Deidara's firecracker bombs emitted. Karin took that as her cue to intervene and ran at the kunoichi, kunai-first. The woman, whose floor-length black hair held together like ropes rather than thin strands, saw Karin coming at the last second and bolted backward to avoid the blade. Its sharp edge caught her in the chest, but it left only a shallow imprint, hardly more than a cat scratch. Karin bit back a curse and changed her trajectory. Running in guns blazing had never been her style, possibly to her detriment, though she'd stayed alive this long and saw no reason to change her strategies now. She and the enemy kunoichi circled each other, each waiting for an opportunity to strike.

They didn't have to wait long, for Deidara sent the rogue leader's left arm flying in between them in the wake of a small explosion. It twitched a bit as blood leaked from the ground meat where it had split from its body. The enemy kunoichi stared at it, horrified, and Karin lunged. The woman put up her arm to block, but Karin jammed her kunai through cloth and flesh and bone. The enemy wailed and blood spurted from her forearm, where Karin wriggled the kunai deeper. Red splattered upon her glasses, blinding her, and the enemy took the opportunity to get away. Bloody kunai still in hand, Karin ripped off her glasses and pocketed them, knowing she would die before she got the chance to wipe them clean. The world blurred together in a blend of amorphous shapes and colors, indistinct, like being underwater. Her instinct was to panic. Sight was often a shinobi's greatest weapon, the difference between victory and defeat. Karin's sight was poor, a lethal detriment to any shinobi if she wasn't careful.

But Karin was always careful.

Closing her eyes, she let her third eye guide her way. Chakra fired to life in her mind all around, on fire. Deidara's orange and yellow energy blazed all around, in the ground as buried mines burrowing toward the enemy unseen, in the air as dissipating residue from attacks already completed. There were other colors, blue, green, a soft brown. And something pale pink closing in on Karin from behind.

Karin exhaled and whirled, kunai forward, and caught the enemy kunoichi's attack on her knife. Metal sparked upon metal, and it soon became clear that the older kunoichi was physically stronger than Karin.

"The fuck?" the enemy said, noticing her opponent's self-induced blindness.

Karin didn't respond, instead taking the opportunity to give with the enemy's push and fall back. In a move Juugo had taught her once after she'd seen him do it and he caught her staring, Karin put momentum into her fall and brought her legs up in a scissor-like formation. One boot connected with the kunoichi's stomach, pushing her to the right, and the other smashed into her shins, pushing left. The kunoichi was taller than Karin so the positioning was slightly off, but it got the job done. The enemy went down hard, forced to catch herself on her injured arm. A grunt of pain was all Karin needed to know she'd succeeded.

Scrambling forward, Karin used her body weight to imprison her opponent. Whatever blade she'd used to attack Karin before had fallen from her grasp, useless. In the span of about three seconds, the enemy was dazed with pain and shock, unable to react in time. Karin jammed the heel of her palm into the oozing wound in the enemy's forearm, drawing a sharp cry not unlike that of a dying animal. With her other hand, Karin flipped the kunai around and plunged it into the kunoichi's chest where her pale chakra was brightest.

One breath, two, three. The enemy fell still, twitching and growing cold as Karin's hand heated up with her gushing blood. With each new spill, more of the enemy kunoichi's light faded until there was nothing left but darkness. Opening her eyes, Karin could just make out the woman's mutilated frame beneath her this close up. She'd killed before to survive, and she'd killed this woman to survive, too. She had no regrets.

A loud _crack_ resounded somewhere to the right, and Karin got to her feet and finally took a moment to clean her glasses. There were still pale red smudges from where the enemy kunoichi's blood had dried, but this would do for now. The world came back into focus and Karin searched the area for Deidara among his excess chakra dispersion. He had only one opponent left—the eight-foot giant—and he seemed to be having a good time dodging the big man's punches. For a self-professed distance fighter, she had to admit he was remarkably adept at close-range taijutsu. Still, one connected hit and Deidara's skull would shatter on impact.

An opponent like that was out of her league without special techniques to hit him hard enough to kill on impact. Deidara could blow the guy up, but at such close range he'd get caught up in the blast, too. Not that that had ever stopped him before.

The spider on Karin's shoulder shuddered, and Karin nearly jumped, having forgotten it was there. As soon as she remembered its presence, she devised a strategy that would (hopefully) spare Deidara's life.

"Deidara!" she shouted, ripping the spider from her shoulder and flinging it with all her might.

He spared her a glance and grinned. The big guy slammed his fist down, intending to nail Deidara in the shoulders and drive him to the ground, but Deidara evaded and stepped on the enemy's fist like a springboard, launching into the air. He reached the apex of his jump just as the enemy realized he'd missed and turned to search for Deidara over his shoulder. The spider hit the shinobi in the juncture between his shoulder blades and stuck fast, its tiny legs cutting through the skin to latch on. A moment of confusion passed between Karin and the enemy, cut short when the spider detonated.

Deidara landed on the ground a short ways away, rolling onto his hands and knees. When the smoke cleared, Karin had to swallow the bile that threatened to burn her throat at the sight of the enemy's mangled body. Everything from the torso up was obliterated, leaving only a ground up, bloody mess like some animal had chewed half of him off. There was no trace of his upper half anywhere.

"Nice aim, Red," Deidara said between coughs as he pulled himself up.

Karin looked away from the grisly sight and focused on Deidara, whose face was smudged with soot in places. "A sticky grenade? You could have warned me about that when you stuck that thing on my shoulder."

Deidara shrugged and flashed her a smirk. "What can I say? I like surprises, yeah."

She rolled her eyes and took a look at herself. Her clothes had somehow been spared most of the blood spatter from her brutal fight with the kunoichi, but her hands and forearms were a different story. Some of it had gotten in her hair, matting it in places. Disgusted, she searched for something to clean herself off with but found nothing.

"Y'know, you coulda just killed her without disemboweling her," Deidara said.

"I stabbed her in the heart. It got messy."

"Well, anyway, I didn't know you had it in you. One I could see, but two's somethin' else. Guess next time I won't try to be so greedy."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, that gremlin guy who went hard when you told him to fuck off. You stab him in the heart, too?"

Karin stilled, eyes wide as she swept the area with her chakra, searching. There was no trace of him anywhere. Deidara noticed her reaction and frowned, drawing closer.

"Red, tell me you castrated that son of a bitch, yeah."

"I thought _you_ were fighting him," Karin said, stretching her senses farther out.

"I was, and I lost him in the smoke at the beginning. When I saw you fighting, I thought you were taking care of him. Aw, shit."

"He escaped. Deidara, he's still alive out there."

"Okay, okay, calm down."

He lowered his gaze, thinking. Karin waited for whatever crazy idea that would pop into his head this time, debating whether to just interrupt and start a manhunt herself. But then he looked up and yawned, stretching his arms above his head.

"_Well_, guess that's that. I'm beat. Let's get a room and grab some food, yeah."

Deidara turned away and started walking toward the border and the town that loomed just a short distance away. Karin gaped a moment before running after him.

"Hey, what the hell! We can't just let that asshole get away. He'll probably come back with friends. Maybe he even knows who you are—"

"You worry _way _too much," Deidara said, waving her off. "You'll worry yourself into an early grave like that, y'know? Live a little."

"Are you deaf? Did you not hear what I just said? That guy could have recognized your fighting style and might be running off raise an army right now!"

Deidara laughed. "Yeah, right. If that guy knows who I am, he'll crawl into a hole and pray we never find him. And as for armies, well, I can take 'em. I've done it before, yeah."

Karin walked around him to block his path, forcing him to stop. "Listen to yourself. This is serious. You want me to live a little? How the hell can I do that if we've got rogues hunting us day and night? Are you actually retarded?"

"Rude," he said, scrunching up his face like he was truly hurt.

"Deidara, I _swear_ I will feed you your own bombs in your sleep and blow you up in the morning before you can even find time to jack off."

His expression turned serious, and Karin resisted the urge to take a step back. "I already tried that once. Didn't work out so well, yeah."

She pressed her lips together, not sure what to say to that. He obviously meant the fight with Sasuke, and as far as Karin was concerned they would never agree on that particular turn of events. But as soon as it had come, that dangerous glint in his eyes vanished and he grinned salaciously.

"'Sides, I jack off at night when you're already asleep 'cause I'm such a considerate guy."

Karin's face flushed with heat and she fumbled for her glasses, adjusting what did not need adjusting. "You fucking pig!"

"Y'know, Red, it's not very ladylike to curse as much as you do. You'll _never _get a boyfriend at this rate, yeah."

In her ire, Karin failed to stop him from sidestepping her and heading toward town. Too mad even to think straight, she bit back an unearthly scream of frustration and shook out her arms. The urge passed in moments, and she caught up to him once more, calm and collected.

"I'm not joking about this guy," she said. "This could really be bad for both of us. And I'm not letting you get me killed."

"You're not letting me get _me _killed, either, from the looks of it."

She followed his gaze to her bloody hands, which were starting to itch as the blood dried. She brought them behind her back and frowned.

"You couldn't handle all of them on your own."

She missed the way his gaze lingered on her face as she tried her hardest to look sour and unimpressed with his performance. After a moment of walking, the sound of rustling cloth drew Karin's attention. Deidara slipped something over her shoulders. It was warm.

"I'm not cold, dumbass," she said of the blue jacket he'd draped over her, leaving him only in his brown shinobi gi.

"It's to hide your hands. Don't wanna scare the nice stupid townspeople just yet, yeah."

Karin's protests died on her tongue. The jacket was long enough almost to drag on the ground and the sleeves were short, so she didn't bother putting her arms through them. From experience, it was better not to argue with Deidara if she didn't want a headache, so she accepted the offer and wrapped the coat around her so that there were no traces of blood visible to passersby. Deidara shoved his hands in his pockets and walked beside her.

"Thanks," Karin said after a while as they entered the town.

He shrugged. "Whatever. You'll have to wash it later to get the blood out, so it's all the same to me."

And just like that, another moment ruined.

"You're such a dick."

"And you're a mean old bitch. It's fate, obviously."

"What's fate is my boot in your face if you keep that up."

"Hey, I'm not into that whole S and M kink, yeah."

"That's _not_ what I meant!"

They bickered until they reached the town's local inn, drawing stares from the pedestrians they passed, but none of them frightened. People stopped their milling and shopping to observe the strange couple that had come to town, leaving the light of day and all its colors in their wake.

* * *

They remained crouched and unmoving, simply observing the cave and waiting. A half hour and nothing to show for it was starting to grate on Baki's nerves. Yugao had already scanned the area and found no sign of life around for miles; the place was deserted. And yet, having tracked Deidara and Karin here, she wasn't willing to take any unnecessary risks.

There was a chance this could be an Akatsuki hideout.

And so, they remained camouflaged among the underbrush of the forest, waiting for signs of traps or trickery. So far, nothing.

"Deidara and Karin are long gone," Baki whispered to his partner. "They probably found nothing and moved on."

"Maybe," Yugao said, dark eyes trained on the cave's entrance. "Or maybe they found something that drove them away."

Baki resisted the urge to sigh. "Akatsuki wouldn't just abide us sitting here; they'd come out and get rid of us as quickly as possible. Hunters are always the enemy. There's nothing and no one here."

"Sensors can hide from other sensors perfectly. For all we know, someone could be lying in wait."

Baki rose from their spot and emerged past the trees, walking toward the cave. "Then we'll kill them."

Yugao hesitated before bolting from her hiding spot and catching up to him. Baki resisted the urge to smirk at her fluster.

"This is stupid. With all due respect, this isn't the kind of behavior I would've expected from a respected member of Suna's Jounin Council."

"Respected? That's a big step up from murderer," Baki said, purposely baiting her with their last skirmish.

Yugao bristled beside him. "I stand by that, alliance or no."

Baki paused at the mouth of the dark cave, peering in. He looked down at her, but Yugao wasn't looking at him.

"I'm not asking you to change your mind," he said softly. "For what it's worth... I'm truly sorry."

Baki was shinobi, and shinobi learned that there was no apologizing and no regrets in their line of work. It was a job, plain and simple. Instead of punching a time card at the end of the day, though, shinobi punched lives. There was so much red in Baki's ledger that he sometimes forgot how many lives he'd taken in his lifetime. It was tempting to try to justify the kills, insist on the "greater good" and the "evil of men", but he knew it was a hoax. Pretty platitudes to distract from the reality of the situation: a life was a life, and once taken it could not be returned. Hayate had not been evil, but his death had been necessary at the time. In retrospect, the necessity of the Oto-Suna invasion was a blight on Baki's record, an ignominy that would stay with him and Suna forever. But at the time...

"Let's just go," Yugao said, ignoring his apology completely.

Baki caught the stiffness in her slender shoulders as she marched into the gloom ahead of him, but he said nothing further. He couldn't force her to accept his apology, and in his heart he knew he didn't deserve her forgiveness.

He'd just never thought he'd want it until now.

Swallowing the guilt, he composed himself and followed her deeper into the cavern. The walls were dry and the air was cool. It was difficult to see after the brightness of day, but up ahead artificial lighting gave off a dim glow. Careful, Baki and Yugao approached the corner and came upon a wide chamber lit by electric wall torches. From the looks of the rumpled bedding in one corner, it appeared someone had been living here for some time, but they were long gone. What captured Baki and Yugao's attention, however, was not the old signs of life but the new ones.

"Please tell me that's not what it looks like," Yugao said.

A hundred Sharingan eyes floated in individual tanks stacked against the back wall of the chamber, their dead gazes almost alive in the light. Baki narrowed his eyes and moved closer for a better look. Memories of his Chuunin exam battle against Uchiha Shisui resurfaced. It had been a good match, bloody and feral, and Shisui was an opponent worth every injury Baki had suffered. Shisui had taken Baki's eye that day. The irony of seeing all these Sharingan eyes here before him now was sour on his tongue. This was an abomination.

"I'm afraid it is," he said, voice heavy with trepidation.

They both knew what the other was thinking.

"Oh my god," Yugao said, drawing closer and reaching a hand out to touch the cool glass. "There're so many."

"Someone must have collected them before Uchiha Itachi orchestrated the massacre."

Yugao was silent, the implications of that truth weighing heavily on them both. "Someone murdered all these Uchiha for their eyes long before Itachi carried out the Uchiha massacre."

Like she'd just risen from a deep sleep, Yugao changed course and immediately started to write out a note with pen and paper from her pack. Baki approached.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"I have inform the Hokage. This has to be an Akatsuki base; there's no way Karin or Taka would have had any part in..._this_. No, it has to be Akatsuki."

Baki kneeled down and snatched Yugao's wrist to prevent her from writing.

"Let go of me," she hissed. "What do you think you're doing?"

"You can't just call in the cavalry like this."

"The hell I can't! Akatsuki obviously penetrated more deeply into Konoha's ranks than we ever thought possible. This is insane."

Baki shook his head, willing himself to remain calm. "If you tell the Hokage to send in the troops, they'd be announcing their presence to Akatsuki. Don't think whoever collected all these Sharingan's just going to leave them here to rot. They're too valuable. Whoever the culprit is _will_ come back, but not if you quarantine this place."

"Then what do you suggest? Because I sure as hell am not going to let this slide. I don't abide murder in any form," she spat.

Baki released her wrist, stunned into silence for a moment at the implication in her words. They hurt, but he wasn't complaining. He supposed he deserved her contempt and more. Honestly, he was shocked she hadn't already killed him. But she wasn't thinking this through, and he had to stop her.

"Listen to me. Not only will you scare off whoever collected all these eyes, but you'll probably summon Akatsuki's wrath."

"Their numbers are dwindling. They only have a few men left."

"Believe me when I say one man is all it takes." Baki looked away, the memories returning like they had happened yesterday. "One man to destroy a city, to kill its hope. I can't sit by and let what befell my country befall yours."

Yugao said nothing, but Baki kept his gaze firmly away on the Sharingan eyes. He didn't catch the way the glint in her eyes changed, no longer blind with fury and disdain.

"All right," she relented. "But I still have to inform the Hokage."

"Then do it, by all means," Baki said, catching her eye once more. "But suggest something a little more covert. This could be a perfect opportunity for both our countries."

She held his gaze, unreadable, but the glint of mad fury was diminished, subdued but still there under the surface. At first he'd ignored it, knowing there was nothing he could do about it, but now it got under his skin, needles fumbling for an entry point. He looked away.

"I'll need a minute," she said, returning to the message she was composing.

Baki nodded and headed back outside. He shot the preserved Sharingan one last look, thinking of Shisui and that fight he'd won so many years ago, though not without a price. Outside the sun was still high in the sky, bright, and he shielded his eye from it after the gloom of the cave. It was no good to dwell on the past, he knew. Shisui, Hayate, and all the others he'd ruined in his lifetime, they were gone and nothing could change that. But lately, whenever Yugao looked at him, Baki saw their eyes in hers, silent and accusatory.

"I apologized," he said to himself. "What more do you want?"

"It's done," Yugao said, joining him outside.

Baki watched as she summoned a white falcon, which beat its wings on her forearm as she tied the message to its leg.

"Get this to Hokage and no one else," Yugao said, running two fingers over the bird's feathered back.

It clucked and she swung her arm around to give it a boost. Sturdy wings beat the air, carrying the animal far and fast until Baki could no longer see it against the horizon.

"We should keep to our mission," Yugao said, her eyes still on the sky. "Deidara and Karin are still way ahead of us. I can track them, but if she finds out what I'm doing we'll lose them for good."

"Where are they headed?" Baki asked as the two of them walked toward the treeline to continue their pursuit.

"East. My guess is they're passing through Hot Water Country."

Baki sighed. They were on a wild goose chase with no end in sight. "At this rate we'll chase them all the way to the coast."

"Then I hope you know how to swim."

Frowning, Baki followed her into the trees but maintained some distance so as not to ruffle her. When she said nothing more, he resigned himself to another protracted silence. He didn't mind the silence, but after she'd ignored his apology before, something was niggling at the back of his mind.

_There's nothing more I can do._

The thought rang hollow in his head as he ran alongside her.

* * *

There is a fine line between 'not a good a idea' and 'oh, what the hell.' Deidara prided himself on pushing anyone over that line, even frigid types like Karin.

"You're trying to get me drunk," she said as he passed her another whiskey.

"I'm trying to get you to have a little fun, yeah."

"That's the same thing."

"_Exactly_."

Karin rolled her eyes and tapped the edge of the glass with a finger, teetering on that precarious line. Deidara smirked and sipped his own drink. The bar they were at was the only one in town, and after cleaning up and scrounging up something to eat, they found themselves here at Deidara's insistence and Karin's (surprisingly) easy acquiescence. He'd pegged her for one of those picky types that never broke her own rules, but he'd been wrong. Convincing her was easier the more time they spent together.

The bar was nothing special, just a one-room tavern with booths lacking cushions, a couple empty tables, and a long bar frequented by town locals who probably sat in the same seats every night. It was dark and the low lighting didn't do much to help that. They had their privacy, and no one paid them any mind.

"Relax a little. Don't you get tired of being so uptight all the time?" Deidara said, hoping to get a rise out of her.

"I'm _not_ uptight; I'm just on the run with a wanted criminal searching for another wanted criminal. So _forgive_ me for being a little bit serious."

Deidara mumbled something under his breath before taking another sip. Karin narrowed her eyes.

"What was that?" she demanded.

"I called you a pussy. What're you gonna do about it?"

Karin lifted her glass but held it in front of her without drinking. "How the hell did you survive so long in Akatsuki?"

Deidara shrugged. "I'm kind of amazing, yeah."

"You're loud and indiscreet, your fighting style is way too flashy and unique, and you have no qualms about getting drunk on the job. You should've died ages ago."

He watched her over the rim of his drink. "Funny thing about that."

Maybe she was curious about him (most people were, though few lived long enough to sate that curiosity). Most likely it was the alcohol, given the surfeit of drink at their table. She could hold her liquor, he'd give her that, but even her sharp angles and diamond-cut tone smoothed and softened as the night wore on.

She relented and sipped her whiskey, swishing the ice to stir it up. "Why?" she asked.

"Why what?"

"Why all this?" She gestured toward him. "The art, the bombs, all of it. There are easier ways to kill a man."

Deidara gave her a weird look, and she sobered a bit.

"What, did I offend you?"

"No. Well, not right now you didn't, but you have that ability, I've noticed," Deidara said. Before she could snap at him he added, "I just mean no one really asks me; I'm always the one to just start talking, yeah."

"I've noticed."

He ignored the sourness in her tone, already gathering his chaotic thoughts to explain everything to her, for she seemed willing to listen. "I'm an artist. A _true_ artist."

"There are fake artists?"

"Che, yeah, like my old partner, Sasori. Talk about a case of the delusional." He paused before adding, "You kinda remind me of him."

Karin downed the rest of her drink and held the empty glass before him. "You're buying me another drink for that nasty comment."

"Anything for my fair lady, yeah."

Deidara ordered them another round, and by now he was feeling pretty good. It was a blessed torpor that carried him along with each soporific sip, just slow enough to keep the current flowing but not so much as to drown him. Karin didn't even acknowledge his sarcasm, probably immune to it at this point.

Huh.

Maybe she knew him better than he thought.

"So what's the point of it all?" she asked, holding his gaze.

He could have laughed. "You really are interested."

"I'm asking, aren't I?"

He did laugh. "Well, I don't expect you to understand. Y'know, _some_ people say I'm crazy."

"It's the crazy ones who have the best ideas." Karin sipped her new drink, absorbed in it and missing the look on his face.

_She's not pulling my leg._

"Okay, fine." He leaned forward. "Art is beauty, but true beauty lasts only a moment." He snapped his fingers before her face. "And then it's gone forever. The only thing that's left is the memory."

"What's the point of something that disappears? It's human nature to want to hold onto something."

"It's also human nature to rape and pillage and turn everything they touch to shit. You think that's beautiful?"

"You're generalizing."

"So are you. See, normal people don't see it. They don't have _vision. _Little girls pick flowers and put 'em in vases 'cause they like all the colors, right? But then they cry when the things die. Like they could never have been beautiful at all now that they're wrinkled and shit. That's _normal_, and it's fucking ignorant, yeah."

"Death is ugly to most people."

"Because most people don't _get _it. You die the way you live, and let's face it: most people live shit lives."

"So, what do you suggest?"

Deidara leaned back, a smile playing at his lips. "Live in the moment. If you know where to look, you'll find something beautiful. I don't just wanna find it; I wanna create it, yeah."

Karin set down her drink and studied him a moment. "You don't create anything. All you do is destroy. Sasuke told me about how you were on about your art and how beautiful it was, but all it really did was raze about twenty miles of forest."

Deidara shook his head. "No, no, _no._ You're not gettin' it." He paused, trying to think of something to help her understand. "Your smile."

Karin frowned at the abrupt change of subject. "Excuse me?"

"Y'know, when you looked like Swamp Thing and you laughed?"

"Deidara," she warned.

"I'm just saying, I never saw you smile before."

"You told me."

"Anyway, that's what I'm talking about. You were laughing and covered in gunk, and then you just stopped. You looked really beautiful in that moment 'cause it was genuine _and_ it was gone so fast. Like I was lucky to see it, yeah."

Karin said nothing to that. They stared at each other a moment, but she went back to her drink as though he'd said nothing at all. Not a blush, not even a reaction.

"I don't smile much. I just don't," she said softly.

Deidara counted in his head how many drinks they'd had. She was behaving very strangely, even for her. He wondered if this was a good thing or not.

"You don't have to, that's the point. I'll always remember what you looked like in that moment. It's a matter of perspective, and mine's the only one that matters."

Karin snorted. "Bet you get a lot of women with that line."

"Well, you're the only one that's stuck around this long."

This time she did react, and it was so odd on her, the way her eyes fell and her shoulders slumped inward, the way she cupped her glass with both hands as if to hide behind it. But where anyone else might have looked shy and embarrassed, Karin was another kind of beast. Her eyes were hard, her jaw set firmly enough to hurt. He had never really cared about other people, what they thought about or worried about or wanted. They weren't really people, anyway, just meat sacks waddling around the earth wanting to live but fearing death. Cowering from even the thought of leaving their comfort zones. They weren't living at all. Their only purpose was to be his audience, to watch _him_ live the life they dreamed of. He'd been doing it ever since the day he left Iwa, never once looking back.

But she'd been curious about him. She wanted his help even though she knew what that meant. And she was sharing a drink with him in the middle of nowhere with death at their heels, looking pensive. She'd smiled, and she wasn't going anywhere.

"If you find so much beauty in life, then why try to kill yourself?"

And she still didn't get it.

"Oh, y'know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I'd never tried that technique before, and I thought, what the hell?"

Karin nursed her drink, but the look in her eyes had changed, like she could see right through his crooked poetry to the heart he selfishly kept to himself. She leaned forward, and he could not look away.

"You live so intensely in this moment, but you don't even stop to think about what comes next, just like you didn't think twice about blowing yourself up. For someone who'd rather die than live without meaning, you sure put little effort into living at all. You want to be remembered? Then actually _live_. Meet people. Don't just talk about it. Travel the world and see what you've been missing while you stare at yourself in the mirror as your own number one fan. If you don't, then you're already dead and forgotten."

_How—_

The word died in his throat as he found nothing to follow it up with. Every word, carefully chosen, fit. Like she'd been watching, paying attention, not just tonight but the whole time. Before, when he really was gone and left behind without so much as a legacy to call his own. No one to remember him, no one worthy. Just Sasuke.

And now her.

His throat was scratchy, and he gave into the urge to wet it. "You're right," he admitted. "But I'm not dead yet."

"But you should be. Why did you do it? Why even try? Death is the end. There's nothing else. I don't believe for a second that you, of all people, can abide it."

They were both leaning forward, close enough for Deidara to make out the faint splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Back when he worked with Sasori, he'd had some experience with the idea of a universe unto oneself. Sasori had that effect on people, of sucking them in without even trying until they saw nothing at all but him, forever in a grain of sand, even Deidara. This was the first time Deidara was feeling it the other way around.

_Huh._

"_Everyone wants something."_

"Because death is freedom," he said, barely audible, like he was telling her his most cherished secret. Maybe he was. "It only comes once, and only for an instant, but in that instant you're something else; a god, complete and perfect. That moment when your life flashes before your eyes? That's what we all live for. To see a whole life full of color in the blink of an eye and watch it just flicker out—that's the most beautiful thing I can imagine. Death's the only true freedom we have. If you search deep down, you'll see that we all want to die, somehow, someday. _Magnificently_."

The moment lingered, but only briefly. He pulled away and flashed her a sinister grin. "And, y'know, I was sorta trying to kill that stupid punk."

The moment was over the minute Deidara pulled away, but Karin had inched forward to follow, draw it out. It was an uncanny kind of hilarity. She understood him, but she didn't accept him. Although, Deidara supposed he'd never asked for anyone to accept him. He didn't need it.

"But you didn't," she said, pulling away at last.

"No, and here we are." He waved an arm out to gesture at the grand shithole around them. "Guess if I'd have stayed dead, you'd still be with him."

Karin retreated to her drink once more, the ball in her court. "I'm not so sure."

The brink.

Deidara would have recognized it blindfolded. She was on the edge of something, something that didn't involve him, and yet he stood on the precipice with her, here. He asked her the question he'd asked himself the first day when she came to him, dirty and desperate:

"Why'd he throw you away?"

* * *

_He didn't throw me away._

She wanted to say that, so badly, but the words would not come. Sasuke had severely injured her and left her for dead. Even long after, as she rotted in a dingy prison cell in the bowels of Konoha, he never came. Karin had never questioned his vendetta. She respected his choices and supported him not only because she believed he had every right, but because from the moment she'd met Uchiha Sasuke, she knew he would only accept her support and never her opposition. He would die to get what he wanted, but she could not let him die. Suigetsu and Juugo could not let him die. Sasuke may have been willing sacrifice his dignity, his loyalties, even his brother's dying wishes to take the revenge he believed he owed his family. He'd created Taka to do what he could not; they survived to keep him from trying.

Sasuke chose revenge for the murder of his family, but Karin chose survival. Revenge had never interested her. It would not bring back her parents no matter how many souls she offered in retribution. She had pledged to use her talents on the living, on the ones she could still save. Sasuke was still one of those people. He had to be.

It was easy to tell Deidara everything. Maybe because she knew he hated Sasuke. Maybe it was because she knew he would listen. For all his rancor, there was a part of her that knew he had a point.

"He stabbed through me to get to Danzō, to get his revenge. That was the end of it," she said.

Deidara listened intently to her short spiel detailing her adventures with Hebi and later Taka up until her capture by Konoha. Only when she finished did he offer some words of his own.

"So he went cuckoo. That's why he tried to kill you, yeah."

"Something changed in him after the Hachibi fight. He became...something else. I didn't realize the gravity of the situation until it was too late."

The words were a weight off her shoulders, words she had never confided to anyone before. There was guilt in having these doubts about Sasuke, but Karin had always been a pragmatist, and her senses never lied. Still, she could not help but think that maybe, underneath the rot and cold that had consumed him, Sasuke was still in there. He'd stabbed her, but he hadn't killed her. He didn't finish the job and even attempted to goad his old teammate into doing it as a ploy to kill her.

_Why didn't he finish me?_

"Here's what I don't get. You got out of prison on your own and found me. You've stayed alive this whole time, but you're lookin' for the man who tried to kill you. And not to return the favor, but to help him. What the hell is up with that?"

Karin shook her head and regretted it. The room spun, and she rested her head in a hand to contain the rush. "You don't understand, and I don't expect you to."

He let her get her bearings in silence, lone blue eye watchful as she composed herself. But as soon as she caught his eye again, he chuckled.

"I'll be damned. You're in love with him, aren't you?"

Karin's hands shook and she gripped her glass to steady them, but he'd already noticed her reaction. Normally, Karin would raise all hell denying anything of the sort, especially because it had typically been Suigetsu to accuse her of such tenderness in the past. But this was Deidara, and she could predict him about as well as she could predict the weather next Tuesday. If there was one thing she'd learned about Deidara in their acquaintance thus far, it was that he drew his own conclusions and held fast to them like a feral dog with a bone.

"It's none of your business," she snapped.

Deidara frowned. "No, it's not, and I wouldn't care, but you know this is _Sasuke_ you're talkin' about. The dude who tried to _kill_ you."

"I already told you, he wasn't in his right mind."

The intensity of Deidara's gaze made Karin shiver. Any joviality brought on with their impending inebriation vanished as the unforgiving killer in him, the violent daylight joined the conversation.

"He betrayed you, Karin. You trusted him, and he fucked you over. That's not the kind of thing you can just forgive, yeah."

Something told her Deidara was not really thinking of Sasuke, but of Madara. She did not blame him, and despite how much she wanted to defend Sasuke, she knew she could not. Not to Deidara, and not to herself. Not until she could confirm Sasuke's betrayal with her own eyes, on equal standing, once and for all.

"It's not about forgiveness," she said.

"No, it's about revenge. Don't sit there and tell me you don't want him to pay for what he did."

"It's not about revenge. I told you, that's never been something I wanted. I just..."

"What? You're just gonna pretend like it never happened? And they call _me_ insane. Listen to yourself, seriously."

He was growing angry, and an angry Deidara was a volatile Deidara. Despite the buzz in her head, Karin understood that this was a delicate situation. It was too close to home for him, and damn if she was having trouble proving him wrong.

_Do I want revenge on Sasuke?_

"No," she said, knowing it to be true. "I want to show him that he didn't break me. I don't care how strong he gets. He can never break me."

_No one can._

Karin had always been a survivor. And to survive, she'd hidden, bled, suffered brutal experimentation and abuse, torture, even had to oversee it herself at times. But through it all, one idea rang clear above the rest: nothing would ever be worth the pain and suffering if she just gave up and died. She had to survive, and to survive she could not break. Not for her slaughtered family, not for Sound, and not even for Sasuke.

Deidara calmed down to a simmer, contained but still a threat. He nursed the rest of his drink as he gathered his thoughts. "So, what'll you do if he tries it again? Maybe he can't break you, but he can break himself." Deidara's gaze averted and stared at nothing, remembering. "I've seen it happen before to guys better than him."

It was the question Karin had been asking herself since the day she'd landed in Konoha's prison. What if there was no saving Sasuke? It was a possibility, but not one she liked to entertain.

"I don't know," she admitted, letting the fear wash over her, uncaring that Deidara could see it all over her face. The alcohol helped, and she downed the rest of her drink. With any luck, they would both forget all of this in the morning.

He slid out of the booth and offered her a hand up. Karin eyed the offer with no small degree of suspicion, remembering the last time they clasped hands and she'd ended up falling into the mud. There was no swamp around here for miles, though, and she was sure she might doze off if she sat here any longer. So she accepted the hand and he pulled her up, steadying her by the waist so she wouldn't fall over at the change in elevation.

Karin avoided his gaze and mumbled, "Thanks."

Deidara offered her his arm to balance on and she accepted without a fuss, not trusting either of them to walk back to their shared hotel room alone. The walk wasn't long, and soon enough they were back upstairs and ready to crash. Karin had lain blankets and a pillow out for herself on the floor, refusing to share a bed with Deidara earlier that day. Of course, the bastard refused to be a gentleman and let her have the bed. Now, however, neither seemed to care so much.

Deidara flopped down on the bed, shedding his boots and jacket. Hugging a pillow he said, "C'mon, I don't have cooties, y'know."

"I'm not sharing with you," Karin protested, already leaning on the edge of the bed. The room spun, and she tossed her glasses on the floor along with her own jacket and shoes.

"Shut up and stop arguing for once. Goddamn, woman."

"Asshole," Karin mumbled as she slumped onto the bed.

Deidara grabbed her arm and hauled her up, shoving a pillow in her face. "Don't hog the covers. I bet you do that, yeah."

"S'long as you don't fart in your sleep." She closed her eyes and buried her face in the pillow.

"'M not makin' promises."

Karin barely heard him as she succumbed to sleep's sweet embrace. Drunk sleep was not real sleep, but right now she wasn't complaining. The bed smelled clean enough and Deidara wasn't invading her space, so she could deal.

* * *

Maybe there was a waxing moon tonight, but he couldn't see it through the thick bandages folded over his eyes.

Not his eyes.

The night air was cool and crisp, uncomfortable, but Uchiha Sasuke had never protested the cold. He filled his lungs with fresh air, repressing a shiver. It wasn't enough to ease the pounding in his head and the ache in his limbs.

"How much longer?" he asked the perpetual darkness.

"Not long."

Tobi stood a short ways away, watching. Even now, Sasuke refused to call him Uchiha Madara, doubting it to be true. Not that it mattered. Tobi or Madara or simply the Masked Man, none of them mattered. Not much of anything mattered anymore. He lifted his hands before his blind face and imagined the chakra pathways lining them, burning in the dark. Purple and now red, too.

"You did well," Tobi said. "Itachi never made it this far. He never figured out how to turn his hatred into strength."

Sasuke said nothing as he continued to flex his fingers before his face. There was a part of him that blamed Tobi for this out of spite, but it was a small part. Konoha was responsible. Fiends like Danzō were responsible. The elder council, the Third Hokage, the very energy of that place that had let this happen to the Uchiha, to Itachi, to Sasuke. The idea of letting them get away with it was sickening.

No. Tobi was the only one helping him now. Even Taka had abandoned Sasuke.

"_Sasuke..."_

"_Karin...don't move."_

He gritted his teeth and rested his throbbing head in his hands, itching at the dressings over his eyes. Itachi's eyes.

"_We're done, Sasuke."_

"Ah," he said to himself. "We're done."

"What was that?" Tobi asked.

"_Wouldn't you know, in the end, he really loved you more than anything."_

"_I'm sorry, Sasuke. This...is the last time."_

"But I'm not," Sasuke said.

He dug his fingers behind the bandages and ripped at them. They were damp with tears and a little blood as they fell to the ground in a heavy, sopping heap. Tobi said nothing. Overhead, the moon shone bright and brilliant, outshining even the millions of stars. Sasuke opened his eyes and took in the pale light, wondering if this was how Itachi had seen it every night he'd run from the duty now left to Sasuke.

"I'm not done, Brother."

Tobi looked on from the shadows, the Sharingan glowing through the eyehole in his mask. Smiling.

* * *

The journey through the Hot Water Country was slow going. Not because either Deidara or his feisty travelling companion wanted to languor and take the scenic route, but because ambush after ambush began to take its toll on their schedule.

"Katsu!"

A group of three rogue shinobi were blown to smithereens as the three clay puppets Deidara wielded crashed into them and detonated on impact. He winced at the deafening sound, calculating in his head their location with respect to the nearest human settlement. They were probably good. Probably.

It had been nearly a week since he and Karin had set foot in Hot Water Country, and ever since they'd had run-ins with the locals sometimes two or three or four times in a day. Their first morning some thugs chased them out of their hotel room, still hung-over from the previous night's bar escapades. Deidara was quick to find out that a hung-over Karin was a hopping mad Karin when she didn't get as much sleep as she wanted. Having been on the receiving end of her temper on several occasions up until this point, he couldn't say he wasn't relieved she was on his side and busy taking it out on the unfortunate rogue shinobi with the pointy end of her kunai.

As Deidara detached himself from the spent clay, he whirled just in time to avoid some dude's comatose body sailing over his head. Karin huffed a short ways away, her arms shaking with adrenaline and fury. He grinned brightly.

"My, what strong arms you have, Karin-chan."

"All the better to feed you your own testicles with if you _ever_ call me Karin-chan again, you piece of shit."

"Whoa there, at least take me to dinner before movin' to second base, yeah."

She flipped him off before turning back toward the tide of battle. There were about five rogues left, and Deidara was fast losing his patience. They lunged at Karin, figuring if they converged altogether, they would easily barrel through her to get to Deidara. Karin held out her kunai, but began to backtrack as she calculated their intentions. Deidara bit his cheek so hard he tasted blood, but the pain only spurred him onwards.

Before the rogues could reach Karin, Deidara tossed several clay birds in their direction before falling to the ground and channeling earth-based chakra through the ground. Karin fell back at his side, her hand squeezing his shoulder. The rogues skidded at the sight of the birds, confusion warping into fear and panic in the span of about a second or two. Just as they turned on their heels to dash out of range of the bombs, the ground split at their feet and spewed thick rock on all sides, which converged on them in the shape of a dome, boxing them in. Someone screamed.

"Katsu!" Deidara said through clenched teeth.

The explosions ricocheted off the sides of the rock dome, muffled but loud enough to rattle Deidara's jaw at this proximity. The screams were no more, and Deidara stood up. Karin let her hand fall.

"Subtle," she said.

"Hey, that dome was fucking genius, don't even start."

Karin frowned. "Yeah, I know, that's why I was saying it was subtle."

Deidara looked at her like he'd just gotten a whiff of something rotten. "Oh. Well, in that case, uh, you're welcome."

"What the hell for?"

"For saving your life, _duh_."

Karin waved him off. "That's your day job. Don't expect me to thank you for things you're obligated to do."

She stalked off past the dome into the woods, and Deidara gave chase.

"Hey! For your information, I put a lot of effort into saving your bony ass like, on a daily basis, yeah!"

"Uh-huh."

"Red!"

As luck would have it, though, they didn't get very far before more rogues caught up to them. Deidara was seriously regretting not listening to Karin when she'd suggested they give chase to the letch that had gotten away on their first day in this place. Day after day, and they made little actual progress.

"What if I just blew up all of Hot Water Country?" Deidara suggested as dusk settled in and they stood back to back, surrounded on all sides.

"Your dumb ideas are starting to sound good to me. That's a bad sign."

"Rude much."

One of the rogues, a slender kunoichi with dazzling orange hair, said, "No one's blowing anything up, sugar. This ends now. You picked the wrong crowd to mess with."

Karin rolled her eyes. "Oh, please."

Deidara's mood soured as he was manhandled into close combat. He tried to keep one eye on Karin as he dealt with the enemy, but this bunch was decent enough to merit his full attention. Karin could handle herself, as he'd come to acknowledge, but they were outnumbered and tired.

Storm clouds blotted out the stars and put a damper on the setting sun, but they didn't release any rain. Karin fought off a young shinobi with her kunai, eyes quick to read his chakra as well as his movements and try to find an opening. Chakra flared at the back of her head and she tried to duck, but a thick fist slammed into the side of her neck and sent her tumbling to the ground on all fours. She grunted and rolled, not giving the pain even a moment to kick in and paralyze her.

The rogue who'd punched her brought down a serrated knife, which cleaved the earth where Karin had landed not a half a breath after she rolled to the side. Holding her breath and gritting her teeth hard enough to hurt and distract from the ache in her neck, Karin threw her kunai with all the strength she could muster. She was no marksman, but but at a distance of about four feet she was guaranteed to hit her target. Right through his left eyeball.

He went down, and before he hit the ground, Karin was quick to retrieve his knife and lash out horizontally at the other chakra signature still towering over her. Sharp steel sawed through flesh and bone, and the rogue screamed. His knees wobbled and he sank to the earth, his tibias cracked and unable to hold him up any longer. Karin used his fall to adjust her grip on the knife and tackled the rogue, who had the strength to attempt to wrestle it out of her grasp. Karin spit at his eyes, blinding him, and used the opportunity to drived her angled hip into one of his ruined legs. The rogue howled and loosened his grip on the knife, which Karin brought down through his neck. Hot blood squirted from the entry wound and coated her arms and chest, speckling her face and glasses in the process. She tasted it on her tongue but didn't spit again, mind hazy with adrenaline.

"Shit!"

An unknown voice—a rogue kunoichi—drew Karin's attention to Deidara's battle, where he'd just finished blowing a hole through an enemy shinobi's face. The kunoichi didn't waste any time and shoved her now dead teammate bodily until he collided with Deidara. Staggering, Deidara wasn't able to avoid a wicked slash that left him with a bleeding laceration across the stomach. He made up for it, however, with an ingenious exercise in footwork that landed him behind the enemy kunoichi with a fistful of her bright hair in hand.

Karin caught a glimpse of nothing in Deidara's eye—no emotion, not even anger or pain, just the kill—as he slammed his palm against her lower back and released a blast of explosive chakra at point-blank range. She didn't have the time to realize what was happening, no moment of fear. She was just gone.

Karin could only stare as her innards burst from her abdomen. Intestines, liver, the gray matter that wasn't really so gray when there was that much blood (did people really have that much blood? She'd forgotten, all this time away from Sound.). Deidara tossed the rogue kunoichi's mangled body to the side like he might his dirty laundry. Her blood coated his front and drizzled his face, but still he gave no indication of caring, of even noticing. Karin swallowed, remembering the fear he'd incited in her at the pub just north of Fire Country. A dead space. Violent daylight.

Ground zero.

She thought of Sasuke, unbidden, of the fight that surely awaited him when she and Deidara caught up to him, and her throat twisted, itchy for something that wouldn't sate it.

"Deidara," she called, softly.

It was a miracle he heard her, and when he turned that vacuous eye upon her, it was all Karin could do not to look away. He took only a moment to recognize her, and his shoulders slumped. He blinked, and he was Deidara again.

"Whoa, Red, someone put you through a woodchipper?"

Karin had to stop herself from smiling at the warm relief that swept through her. She bit her lip and looked away, and she caught sight of her kunai still embedded in the rogue's eye socket.

"No, just dropped that," she said, picking herself up and retrieving the weapon.

Deidara said nothing at her subdued attitude, which puzzled her. She pocketed the kunai, still the only one she carried, and faced him. His breathing was audible, and his chakra flow was erratic even for him.

"You're hurt," Karin said, recalling the deep gash across his abdomen now obscured by the enemy's blood and guts.

"Huh? Oh, I forgot."

Karin approached and reached for him, squinting through the darkness. "How do you just forget a hole in your stomach?"

"It's a gift, yeah."

Karin snorted, once more biting her lip so as not to grin. No need to give him a big head. Despite the meager moonlight, her third eye told her this wound would not stop bleeding on its own without some help. He needed to be healed and patched up, fast. As if on cue, Deidara pressed a hand to his abdomen and winced when he thought she wasn't looking. Idiot, as if she'd miss what was written all over his face.

"I have to heal you," she said before she could think about what exactly that entailed. "Without medical chakra, you'll lose too much blood before we can find shelter."

"You're a medic? Why didn't you say so before?"

"I didn't say I was a medic. But I can heal you."

Deidara gave her a weird look and took a step back. "Hey, I'm not into that creepy alternative voodoo shit, okay, like, that's cool if you are, although I'm not gonna lie, I'm judgin' a little—"

"Oh shut up, that's _not _what I meant. Damn idiot."

Karin hesitated a moment, but she'd already offered and he needed this. As long as she explained the procedure, there was no chance that he'd hurt her or take advantage of the situation, she reasoned. Still, her fingers shook as she rolled up the sleeve on her left arm to reveal a couple old scars. Deidara immediately zeroed in on the scars—the bite marks—and frowned.

"My chakra's got the ability to heal any injury," Karin explained, eyeing him carefully. "All you have to do is bite me. It'll do the rest."

Deidara gaped. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Karin growled. "You heard me. You want me to heal your or not? I'm not offering again."

That got his attention and he returned his gaze to her offered forearm, but she couldn't help the gooseflesh that formed on her back and shoulders under the heat of his gaze. He said nothing, but he didn't have to; the questions were the same as everyone else's.

He reached for her and grasped her wrist in a gentle grip, smearing blood as he did so. Bringing her arm closer to his face, he spared her the embarrassment of making eye contact. She couldn't tell if it was consciously done or not, but she was grateful for the small consolation. His breath was hot on her skin for a fleeting moment, too hot, and then his teeth sank into her flesh and held on.

Karin hissed, and this drew his eye to hers. She looked away but brought her free hand to his shoulder, a silent encouragement. The gash in his middle hissed and smoked as Karin's vigorous chakra worked overtime to stitch it back together, along with any other wounds he may have accumulated that she wasn't aware of. It was over in under a minute, and he released her.

Deidara panted and wiped his mouth, a little of Karin's blood staining his lips. Karin quickly retracted her arm and pulled her stained sleeve back down. Not that it mattered—he'd already seen everything already.

"Whoa." Deidara waved his hand in front of his face. "This is trippy."

"What you're experiencing is the effects of my technique. You'll be able to see chakra auras and your senses will be heightened temporarily. It'll wear off, don't worry."

Hands in her hair made her jump, and Deidara's face was suddenly mere inches from hers.

"Wow," he said, eyes roving over her hair and face and neck. "You're so..."

There was a nasty retort on the tip of Karin's tongue, but the earnest look in his eye made her hesitate.

"So _red_," Deidara finished, tugging on her hair.

Karin flushed with fury and shame and shoved him off her, uncaring that he pulled some of her hair out with him. "Hands to yourself, pervert!"

She marched off in an aimless direction, uncaring of where she was going so long as she put some distance between here and _him_. But, as he was wont to do, Deidara soon caught up to her, grinning like an idiot.

"Dude, did you know your chakra's all red and spiky? But not uniformly spiky, okay, it's like all over the place. Like your hair, yeah."

"Charming."

"Oh my god, how do you even function on a permanent acid trip like this? Is that why you have to wear glasses? Are they like your Cyclops goggles or something?"

Karin ignored him and kept on walking, thankful when they found a nearby town with an inn. The spindly guy at the counter took one look at them and passed them a key, no questions asked. Karin trudged up the stairs, ignoring the peeling blue wallpaper and the fact that Deidara nearly knocked over a vase with flowers that had been dead for at least a week. She twisted the key in the lock for their room at the end of the second floor hall and nearly tripped over herself to get inside. It was dark, and she fumbled for a light switch. Finding none, she grumbled curses under her breath and resolved to claim the shower first. She began to unbutton her lavender jacket and tossed her blood-spattered glasses on the nightstand nearby.

"You smell like shit, by the way," Karin said as Deidara joined her in shrugging off his soiled clothing.

"Back at you," he sang.

Karin pulled off her boots and began to peel off her leggings. Whatever, it was dark and she was sticky as all hell and a silly little thing like modesty wasn't going to stop her from getting that hot shower first. Besides, technically Deidara had seen all there was to see when he'd decided to go Where's Waldo on her at the river in Swamp Country. These thoughts served to build her inner annoyance, and she hardly noticed the fact that she was peeling off her fishnet tank top. Blood, not hers, clung in light smears to every crevice and fold of skin, dry and drying. Moonlight filtered through a dirty window on the far wall, the only light source but more than enough to illuminate silhouettes and shadows and half smiles. Deidara was dirtier than she was. He was also down to his pants at this point, and Karin suddenly realized she'd been staring for just a fraction of a second too long.

She collected herself and attempted to push past him toward the bathroom, but a firm hand on her wrist stopped her. Deidara was staring at the bite marks on her arm, most old and one barely an hour fresh. The blood was still drying. For all her restorative ability, Karin's chakra never healed the bite marks. They remained, like snapshot photographs of nightmare fragments. She could remember them all if she tried, but she never tried.

"Where'd you get all those scars?"

Karin gritted her teeth and searched for his gaze, but it was planted firmly on her arm. He'd asked her the same thing back at the river in Swamp Country, and she'd chosen to flash him instead of delve into a memory he had no business messing with. But now he knew. He _knew_ and he still wanted her to spell it out for him.

She yanked her wrist free and glared at him. "_Don't_ patronize me."

"I don't think you're weak."

Karin stopped struggling momentarily. Deidara looked up at her, his expression unreadable.

"Having scars doesn't mean you're weak, yeah."

"_I don't wanna do it anymore."_

Lyrical laughter echoed in her head, distant as a dream. _"Oh Karin, it's never been about what _you_ want."_

Her hand shook in his grip, but she forced herself not to pull away. Perhaps under normal circumstances, recalling such memories would have brought frustrated tears to her eyes. But Karin's life circumstances had never been quite normal, and she never quite right. The only right thing she'd ever done had left its mark on her flesh. She knew which ones were Sasuke's.

"I know that," she said, barely audible. "I know."

Deidara watched her a moment longer, and for the life of her she could not gauge his thoughts. He was such an open book most of the time, but when he really tried, he go places even she, with all her insight and intuitions, could not follow. Karin had a sudden flashback to the vision of him standing among the ashes, the world burning all around him, threatening to swallow him, too, if he wasn't careful, and him so at ease, so charismatically overjoyed with himself and the non-sense of his place at the center. There was no calm at the eye of the storm—only chaos.

"_It's a matter of perspective, and mine's the only one that matters."_

In her muddled thoughts, she didn't react in time to circumvent his free hand running along her bare forearm, past the elbow, around the shoulder. Karin gasped and remembered herself.

"_What do you think you're doing?" _she wanted to demand. To screech at him, something shrill and grating to throw off the fluidity of his movements, unpredictable but natural in their certainty of the uncertain. His fingers found her neck and anchored at the base of her hairline, a subtle shift of perspective that emphasized their height difference and made the proximity of his face all the more apparent.

Even without her glasses, this close up it was impossible to misread his intentions. There were times, plenty of times, in her life when Karin had beared witness to this kind of attention. The leers of men, sometimes women, all from afar, regardless. Even Sasuke, cold, cruel Sasuke, was just nothing more than a man in the end, and even he could forget his mission if just for a few hours, a few minutes, just enough to leave an impression and take one for himself, too. Never had she found this attention so _loud_ before, like the noise-cancelling ringing leftover in the aftermath of a powerful rupture in time and space, the epicenter of raw, human emotion from which even kunoichi like Karin—and shinobi like Deidara, a killer, a terrorist, a weapon looking to self-destruct just for the hell of it—could not escape.

How?

How could he burn so brightly at ground zero, where not even the ashes could survive?

When he finally kissed her (and by 'finally' she meant on a whim, as if all the consideration in the world leading up to this moment no longer mattered in the face of an outcome that _did _matter, and who had time to dwell?), Karin had no time even to feel surprised. He swept over her, hands and body and breath, that there was barely anything to hang onto at all. Erratic, unable to decide on a single course of action and stick to it, he was everywhere at once: in her hair, at the curve of her bare waist, under her thigh and lifting her closer. Karin ran her fingers through his knotted hair, pulling at it with blood-stained fingernails as she kissed him back, too caught up even to think. What was there to think about? Old nightmares that had tried to do what they'd never succeeded at before? Orochimaru and Sound were far from here, far from her, and the scars proved it. She had never been weak.

Deidara stumbled toward the bed and half dropped her onto the waiting pillows, adjusting the sheets to pool at the foot so they wouldn't be in the way. It was a moment wasted, and Karin remembered herself. Lurid eyes traced the dried blood splatter across his abdomen where she'd healed him, and a dull throbbing pain in her wrist reminded her of the sacrifice she'd made to heal him.

"Deidara, wait," she said, trailing off and forgetting what to say next.

He froze, eyes wide like he'd been caught stealing. Karin faltered and looked away.

"I don't think..."

Once again, she could not find the words to finish her thought. Her fingers twitched, eager for something to grab onto against his vertigo, but just suspended like this it was easy to forget the fear of falling. She hardened her gaze in a scowl that cut deep.

A hand in her hair forced her to look up, and despite her uncertainty something roared to life inside her at the sight of his undiminished desire, something deep and dangerous, something that would probably hurt, but then, we are all slaves to gravity.

"For once in your life, just let go," he said, remaining perfectly still.

Karin sucked in a breath and held it in, unwilling to let it go perhaps out of fear or shame or anger over the fact that she wanted nothing more than to let it go, be free like he said, because what better time to be free than now when no one knew them and no one cared? What would it be like to be free, to be so light as to rise up off the earth and fly, the way he flew through the sky leaving a trail of burned sunshine in his wake, never looking back? What would it be like to fall?

She was pulling him down before she'd even reasoned it all out in her sharp mind. He kissed her hard enough to hurt, hard enough to blot out the dull ache in her wrist. His hands, warmer than she'd have imagined, ran over the rippling scar tissue on her arms and shoulders, leaving kisses of their own where so many others had only ravaged and stolen.

They found a tempo but kept breaking it, desperate get closer, sometimes slower. Karin closed her eyes to the world and simply felt. There were infinitely better ways to do this, clean, warm, beautiful ways that didn't happen just after committing murder with enemy blood drying under their nails, but that was not for them. Somewhere in the rhythm of chaos they seemed to churn up wherever they turned, they found peace. Freedom.

There was no point in fearing the fall when they could fly.

* * *

He couldn't decide if this was exactly how he'd imagined she'd be or just the opposite. Women, Deidara had learned even in his relatively short life, were not all created equal. But most were predictable enough.

He'd had a dream that Karin had woken up in the middle of the night, realized what had transpired between them, and took the kunai she kept and castrated him right there, no regrets, not even a hint of hesitation. The nightmare was so vivid that he actually jerked awake (_you fucking pussy_) and checked to make sure he was all there. Karin hadn't stirred from her position next to him. Or rather, on top of him. She tended to spread out in bed, take up all the space for herself, the greedy hog. He'd laughed out loud—not at his own internal musings, but at the fact that she hadn't woken up with all his twitching. Satisfied that she'd remain comatose, he settled back down and slung an arm around her waist to keep her in place.

Now, waking for a second time and finding himself alone in the bed, he had a brief moment of panicked I-told-you-so. A thousand scenarios raced through his mind, inspired by his past escapades and the wealth of knowledge that was Men's Obviously Factual Opinions About Women. Maybe she had ditched him. Maybe she'd run to the hotel's kitchen in search of a knife with which to castrate him so she wouldn't have to dirty up her kunai. Maybe she was off crying in the bathroom. For a moment he let himself believe that last option, but the running water sound was not tears. Just the shower.

He tentatively sniffed at his armpit.

"Aw, man."

Yeah, he definitely needed a shower. Flecks of old blood were stuck in between the sheets, and as entertaining as it was to think that Karin had gone all Carrie on him, he remembered their haste in getting in here after the rather brutal fight last night. He chuckled at the memory of them both sweating and grimy with other people's blood. The way she'd rammed that kunai through the rogue kunoichi's chest their first day in Hot Water Country. Groaning, he leaned back in bed and covered his eyes with an arm.

A cold shower, then.

As soon as he heard the water shut off, he sprang out of bed and charged into the bathroom. No sooner had he cleared the door than something damp and thick slammed into his face.

"The fuck!"

"Deidara, wait your goddamned turn!" Karin shouted, batting him with her towel again.

Deidara, being the brilliant shinobi he was, grabbed the towel and very maturely yanked it away from her while sticking his tongue out. "You're too slow, yeah."

They locked eyes for the first time since last night, and he hesitated for the briefest of moments. She'd cry, she'd definitely cry. Or maybe punch him. That seemed more up her alley. Instead, she just sighed and pulled her towel back, taking care to wrap it around herself without exposing anything.

"Fine, I'm done, anyway."

With a careless wave, she scampered out of the bathroom and pulled the door closed behind her. He just stared, perplexed. He was sure she'd at least be mean to him.

"Okay," he said softly, rolling his head to crack his neck. "Yeah, okay."

He blasted the cold water and stood under it for as long as he could stand it (which was a grand total of about nine seconds) before cranking up the hot water. Blue eyes trained on the bathtub floor, watching the water muddied with blood and dirt and sweat and the smell of Karin wash away down the drain. While it was tempting to find closure in the transience of this, an encounter that seemed so far away now he had to remind himself that he hadn't made it up, there was something bugging him about it. Nothing big, just...something. It wasn't a big something, and he could ignore it if he wanted, but that went against his principles. Shutting off the water and stepping onto the already damp floor courtesy of Karin, Deidara looked around for a bath towel only to find there were none. Only a hand towel sat untouched on the shelf. He rolled his eyes.

"Aaahhh, what a bitch," he said, smirking.

He did his best to dry off, though there was no helping his hair much and he quickly resigned himself to this sad fact. Whatever. He busied himself combing through it with one hand as he secured the small hand towel around his narrow hips before exiting the bathroom. Karin was still in her towel, but she'd made the bed and laid their clothes—which were wet and looked undeniably cleaner than they had last night—out on the small coffee table and chairs near the window to catch the sun. It was almost thoughtful how she'd taken the time to wash their clothes without harping on him to help, but the inferred knowledged that she'd woken up much earlier than him to do it was a bit of a downer. The itch bugging him about something missing grew stronger.

Karin heard his footsteps and burst out laughing when she saw him standing in the middle of the room with a mop of soaking hair and a loincloth, for all intents and purposes. The change in demeanor threw Deidara so hard and so fast that all he could do was stand there like an idiot and gape. Karin put a hand on the bed to steady herself as she _cried_ through her fits of laughter.

"Oh, you look _ridiculous_!"

Deidara nearly choked from forgetting to inhale properly. Of all the things, laughter was the last thing he'd expected from her this morning. Although, if he was being technical, she had ended up crying, after all. It occurred to him that he'd never seen her even get misty-eyed with melancholy in their time together. She was a tough one, and she had the scars to prove it. But everyone had a weakness. Perhaps Karin's was laughter. Like the last time she'd laughed, Deidara had to marvel at how unrestrained and easy she made it look, like it was the most natural thing in the world despite her usual surliness.

_Ah._

That's it.

Karin wiped her eyes and remembered her glasses, which were still on the nightstand. She reached for them, but Deidara got to her first. He moved fast, too fast to plan or second-guess, as always, but his kiss found her and his body followed. Her towel shifted a little when pressed against his bare chest, but her skin was warm to the touch, still heated from the shower she'd had. Water could not tame her feral hair, and he fisted it in one hand.

She smiled into the kiss, though not on purpose. He'd been on her before she could stop laughing, and as he tasted her tears of joy on her briefly smiling lips, he willed himself to keep this, this moment, her and him, forever. If she didn't have much reason to smile, then at least now when she did she would think of him.

Karin kissed him back but not for long. Once her giggles died down, she pulled back and he let her. She hovered just before him at the apex of indecision, the last vestiges of her laughter evanescent, all but gone. He could still taste her tears when he swallowed.

_That's it._

"Let's get out of this shit hole of a country, yeah," Deidara said.

Karin frowned and sucked on her lower lip to hide her momentary confusion. "Yeah, agreed. I've had enough random battles to last me awhile."

Deidara nodded and pulled away, stretching. His hair was still dripping, and by now the water soaking it had turned cold. He shivered as it ran down his back. Looking around and finding nothing that might help him (he briefly considered snatching Karin's towel but decided he, too, was tired of random battles for the time being), he tugged off the hand towel around his hips and bent over to shake out his long hair.

"Hey!" Karin screeched, retreating to stand on the bed out of range of his shaking and very bare behind.

"Hey back. Way to steal the last normal-sized towel, Red."

"I got to the shower first."

"Yeah, 'cause you _cheated_ and didn't bother waking me up."

Karin shrugged. There was no denying it. Deidara busied himself with toweling off, and even though he was pretty sure she was glaring daggers at their clothes, hoping perhaps that this would dry them out faster, he liked to think she stole glances at his totally amazing backside. He laughed out loud.

"What?" she demanded.

"Oh, _nothing_."

"Put that thing away, you cheap slut."

Deidara straightened and replaced the towel. "_There's_ the Karin-chan I know."

She lunged at him, claws and teeth and near-sighted fury, and Deidara resigned himself to having one last random battle before they finally got out of this godforsaken place.

* * *

It wasn't awkward, and she was surprised at how unsurprising that was. Nothing was ever really awkward with Deidara. Embarrassing, sure. Infuriating, always. Frightening...sometimes. But she'd never felt uncomfortable around him in the social sense. Even the time in Swamp Country when she'd flashed him at the river was more the product of indignation and fury than emotional uncertainty on her part. Physicality had never been something that had occupied much of Karin's thought process. There were no barriers in Sound, so she'd learned from an early age not to try to erect them.

And besides, it was just sex. No feelings, no emotions, nothing but the physical touch of another. A touch she could recall if she closed her eyes and whizzed across the canopy, arms spread just enough to offset the vertigo, on an edge that didn't end. She caught herself and tucked her elbows to her sides to resume her usual running stance. Deidara flew up ahead, his steps light and agile as the tail ends of his jacket fluttered behind him. Wings, she thought, but banished the thought.

The town she and Deidara had stayed at happened to be close to the border with Frost Country, which was considerably cooler than Hot Water despite the summer months, but was far from frozen over. They left as soon as their clothing was reasonably dry and Karin had tried and failed to get in a good punch. Deidara didn't attempt to kiss her again, and he hadn't made any mention of what had transpired between them at all. It was business as usual. A part of Karin was grateful for it.

Another part of her was ignoring an itch she wasn't sure how to scratch.

But she said nothing and they continued on. Without the threat of rogue shinobi slowing them down now that they were out of Hot Water Country, they made excellent progress. Frost Country was miniscule, and they managed to reach the border at Lightning Country by the end of the day.

It seemed that every step she took brought Karin closer to Sasuke. His aura had led her this far, and the scent of him was redolent in the air, wafting on invisible currents of light in waves only she could detect. It was a familiar chakra, which should have brought her some meager measure of comfort, but it was unchanged since the day he'd left her for dead. Frigid, violent, violet. The amounts he left behind were only traces and thus misleading, but the heavy weight in her heart that had gathered as she rotted in Konoha's prison only grew in magnitude with each passing hour.

She remained silent as Deidara checked them into a hotel for the night and led the way upstairs. It was a bit more upscale than the last one they'd stayed at, bereft of peeling wallpaper and carpeted floors that could have been steam cleaned in the past year or so. Classy. Deidara found their room and trudged inside first, flopping down on the nearest bed and falling still as he groaned into the pillow.

Karin followed on autopilot, but she stopped herself upon noticing that the layout here was two twin beds. She frowned, a rude comment on the tip of her tongue about incompetent hotel staff, but caught herself. Deidara still said nothing, nor did he give any indication that there was some kind of mistake. She was sure he'd try to instigate something tonight, and yet he was well on his way to passing out in his travel clothes. Karin clenched her fists hard enough to leave nail imprints on her palms.

"So," she said. "I guess we should get some rest."

"Can't hear you, tryna sleep over here, yeah."

"Ass."

"Oh, about that." He pushed himself up on his elbows and fixed her with a hard stare. "I'm sorry."

Karin hunched her shoulders in and bended her knees in a defensive maneuver. _Here it comes,_ she thought. "For what?"

"For sayin' you had a bony ass all those times, yeah."

Just as soon as her brain cried for adrenaline to prepare her for whatever advance she was sure he was skirting about, it drained completely and left her feeling hollow. "Excuse me?"

He shrugged. "Y'know, it's not bony at all. Actually, it's a fine ass, not that I'm some kinda connoisseur, but I think I know a thing or two about it—"

"Deidara," Karin spat. "Shut. _Up_. About. My ass."

He looked around over his shoulder before pointing to himself as if to say, '_Me?_' Karin rolled her eyes and flopped down on her own bed, arms crossed. She lay there staring at the ceiling, but soon she began to doze. Running all day had that effect, she supposed.

"How much farther?" Deidara's voice cut through the haze of drowsiness.

Karin removed her glasses and shrugged off her jacket. She didn't spare Deidara a glance. "Another day."

She got under the covers and hugged the pillow. Sleep crept up on her again, and what little light suffused through the curtains faded to the background. He spoke again, though, and she heard him perfectly through the silence.

"I'll kill him. Or he'll kill me."

Karin was suddenly wide-awake, but she dared not move. Her heart thudded in her chest hard enough to hurt. This wasn't news, and she'd known all along it would come to this. Deidara was many things, but one thing he was not was a pushover. He'd earned his stripes the hard way, and she'd seen what that meant a number of times on their strange little journey together. She'd been afraid for Sasuke the first time they fought. Now, she was terrified.

Terrified that Deidara was right: one of them would die, and nothing she did would stop it.

"_Karin...don't move."_

She squeezed her eyes shut and instantly regretted it. She saw Sasuke, crazed and beyond reason, ram his sword through her chest to get to Danzō. She watched him watch her fall and never once flinch, never offer her a hand or a word of apology, nothing at all. There was nothing left of him but the poison that had infected and corrupted him. And Deidara...

His poison was a different kind, something that he projected and kept close enough to self-immolate. There was nothing mechanical about it, nothing cold or cruel about it. It was just the harsh reality of chaos, a caprice all its own, and woe to the poor soul who wandered too close.

One of them would die, and it frightened Karin that she didn't know which one. That she didn't know whose side she was on.

_Sasuke needs me._

"_What do _you_ need?"_

Deidara's voice spoke for her in her head just as she imagined it would if he could hear her thoughts now. What a stupid question. Obviously, she needed this day never to come. Obviously, she needed never to speak to Deidara unless it directly concerned their joint mission. Obviously, she needed never to have cared in the first place.

_When did I start caring about anything but my own survival?_

Why couldn't he have just stayed dead?

Why couldn't she?

Karin clenched her jaw and grinded her teeth.

_Just shut up about it already. There's nothing I can do._

Nothing at all.

Nothing.

At all—

"Night, Red."

Karin twitched and nearly choked on the breath she sucked in. Deidara turned over to get comfortable and fell asleep soon after. Relaxing her jaw and wincing at the soreness, Karin hugged her pillow to her chest and curled around it.

"Goodnight, Deidara," she whispered.

* * *

Deidara woke up refreshed and starving at dawn. He hadn't slept so well in a long time. The thrill of a looming fight always put him in a good mood. All morning he went over the last fight he'd had with Sasuke in his head, as he did every morning since the day he should have died. Months and months of mental and emotional preparation were about to pay off...or blow up in his face.

No pun intended.

Running alongside Karin, Deidara lost himself in plans and plots, his eyes ahead on the next branch. He didn't bother looking at her or talking to her. As of this morning, they were enemies again. It didn't take a genius to know she was with Sasuke, now and forever. She'd disclosed as much when they decided to team up, and today was judgment day. The final leg of a business transaction. He liked to think that Sasori would have been proud of him.

"_It's all just a game, and there's always a winner."_

Deidara chuckled to himself. _Says the guy who bit the dust under some girl's foot. _

He glanced askance at Karin, whose gaze remained resolutely ahead, and cringed at his thought. What he wouldn't give to know what had gone through Sasori's head in those final moments letting go of _her_, the last sight he would ever see in this world.

"Careful what you wish for, chump," he whispered.

Nothing at all. Not a word since last night when she'd said goodnight. The artist in him told him it was fitting, really fucking poetic, to be honest, like she just _knew_. He didn't blame her or fault her; they both knew what they'd gotten themselves into agreeing to this fool's errand. He just hadn't properly calculated the magnitude and ramifications of everything that came after. Oh well. No use crying over spilled milk. Karin, if nothing else, could handle the truth. It hadn't killed her yet, try as Sasuke might.

The sudden thought of Sasuke soured Deidara's good mood and killed his adrenaline high. Today was the day, pragmatism be damned. This time, the little punk wasn't getting away. This time, Deidara knew his own weaknesses and was ready to own them. This time, he wouldn't hand the victory to a boy who'd never once earned it. Sasuke was no Itachi, after all, and Deidara wasn't about to treat him as such.

The trees began to thin over the next several miles and Deidara and Karin were forced to proceed on the ground. They walked at a sedate pace, Karin checking the surroundings but not really seeing them, while Deidara stared ahead. Lightning Country was a shithole, to be honest. The deeper one wandered, the shittier it got with its barren plains and fleshy shrubbery reminiscent of old women's gaudy wigs. Deidara imagined a bunch of old biddies buried underground, catching flies with their hair and absorbing them through the follicles because what the hell else was there to do wandering among such drab scenery alongside a woman who wouldn't even speak to him even though this was likely the last chance they'd ever have and didn't she care? Didn't she have even a shred of humanity she could spare for him after all they'd been through? It wasn't like _he'd _ever tried to kill her (at least, not _really_ tried, and that was beside the point)—

"What would you do if you could walk away today with your life?"

Karin's sudden question caught Deidara off-guard, and it showed as he came to a complete stop and looked her in the eye for the first time in almost twenty-four hours. She didn't flinch under his obvious scrutiny.

"Deidara?"

He swallowed. "Well, you know me. Don't like to plan out the details, yeah."

"I'm serious," she said softly. "What would you do?"

_Not 'what _will_ you do'_, he noted. But hey, he supposed he liked that about her. A sour personality is better than no personality, any day.

"Dunno." It wasn't a lie. "I guess I'd fly, see the world, have an epic romance and then break the girl's heart."

She sucked on her lower lip. "That's pretty flaky, even for you."

"Yeah, but it'd make for a great story."

She showed him her back, head tilted downward to stare at the earth. He could just imagine her trying to gather her thoughts, suffering from the mere idea that she couldn't do this with a straight face. It was enough to make him smile, just a little.

_Hell of a great story._

She just stood there, teetering, waiting for gravity to force her hand. Or maybe waiting to slug it in the face. He really couldn't tell when it came to Karin, and while normally that didn't bother him with regards to the general public, something about _her_ changed the rules. But there are no rules. There never have been and he's never needed them. Still, you can't win a game that has no rules.

"_Winning's not the point; it's how well you play, yeah."_

Sasori's laughter rang in the hollows of Deidara's memory. _"You are such a disappointment."_

Sasori hadn't won in the end, he'd died. He'd let himself die! What kind of victory...was...that...

"_You're not actually immortal, y'know. You'll die one day, just like everyone else."_

"_Oh, Deidara, I pity you. To think that a little thing like death can eradicate the truly timeless..."_

Deidara laughed out loud, drowning out the phantom echoes in his head. Karin looked back at him, confused and a little winded.

"No fair," he said through his laughter.

_Even in death, he always gets the last word._

"Deidara," Karin said, reaching out a hand to him.

_Fuck it. _

If Deidara had a choice, he'd sooner die young and leave a crater than wither away in the shadows, alone and forgotten. All he had to lose today was his life, and that had never stopped him before. In fact, it had only ever encouraged the madness that made him great.

He reached for her.

And she froze.

Deidara frowned, but before he had the chance to say anything she whirled, eyes wide.

"Shit," she hissed.

"Red, what're you—"

Deidara cut himself off, understanding. He stepped forward and put himself in between Karin and the uneven sandstone plateaus that rose out of the landscape in the distance. The adrenaline rush he'd lost earlier came back full force, and he leaned forward on his toes, eager to spring.

A figure approached from dead ahead, rising out of the heat mirages.

"What a surprise. I thought I killed you."

Deidara shook with the high, teetering on the precipice of rage and joy. _Finally. _Maybe Sasori had a point about not keeping people waiting. I was enough to drive a man mad.

"Nah," Deidara said. "Can't get rid of us that easy, yeah."

Sasuke came to a stop a short distance away. He paused, observing Karin standing just behind Deidara and off to the side, but he said nothing.

"Oh, her? Yeah, we started a little club: anyone who's been victimized by Uchiha Sasuke. I hear our pool of possible members' been expanding."

"Sasuke," Karin said.

Deidara almost winced at the strain in her voice, though he expected nothing less. His path was easier; she still loved the guy. Deidara wouldn't trade places with her for anything.

"You're in my way," Sasuke said, ignoring Karin. "Move."

"Y'know, I could say the _same_ thing about you, punk." He shoved his hands in the pouches at his hips and began to knead clay. His expression fell as he descended to a dark, silent place, one he knew well. "And this time, I'm not gonna hand you a way out, yeah."

Nothing. There was nothing at all in those dreadful, red eyes. Eyes that struck Deidara as familiar, but not because it was Sasuke. There was a stench about him, something foul and entrenched in his soul that hadn't been there before. Vile and venomous. Deidara recalled how Karin had spoken of his betrayal, and he came down from his high just a breath.

"You wanna play? I'm playin' to win. So you better throw out all your rules, 'cause they won't earn you any points here."

Karin shuffled behind him and he put out an arm.

"Remember our deal, Karin."

"I won't interfere with you," she said, her voice shaky.

Deidara didn't have time to look at her properly. Sasuke advanced, and he wasn't going to give him the chance. Hands raised and ready to unleash everything he had, Deidara lunged into battle for the fight of his second life.

* * *

Karin could not tear her eyes from the scene as she watched Deidara and Sasuke launch their best techniques at each other. She knew from experience that Sasuke's skills had improved manifold since his last fight against Deidara, but Deidara was S-class for a reason. At the moment, they appeared evenly matched as they tested the waters.

Deidara began with a barrage of his trademark bombs, but Sasuke wasted no time in neutralizing most of them with a Raikiri-infused Kusanagi. But this wasn't enough to stop Deidara, who had plenty more where that came from.

Karin followed their movements with her third eye, her usual calm and cool ruffled in the wake of seeing Sasuke again for the first time since he'd stabbed her and left her for dead. There was a moment when he'd caught her eye, just a brief moment when Deidara had pointed out that Sasuke had, in fact, attempted to murder her. But instead of the flicker of recognition, just a mere whisper of the man she'd fallen in love with, there was only her reflection in those cold, dead eyes. The same as the day he'd betrayed her. Now, as she sampled his chakra in person, she knew the truth.

This wasn't Sasuke.

Whatever had happened to him, whatever had stolen him away hadn't given him back. She couldn't explain it, couldn't rationalize it. People didn't just _disappear_ like that, but Sasuke had. This person...he was a stranger. And watching Deidara pummel him should not have hurt her as much as it did.

Where was Madara? She couldn't pick up his chakra anywhere in the vicinity, but that didn't mean he wouldn't teleport in as he was wont to do. In that case, Karin would be the only one standing in between him and an unawares Deidara. She'd promised not to intervene with Deidara, but that didn't hold for other parties.

"Fool," Sasuke spat, wiping blood from his mouth. "Your bombs can't touch me. My lightning neutralizes them, or didn't you learn that last time?"

Deidara clenched his fists in anger, so easily riled. But instead of losing his temper, he just smiled grimly. "I learned. Unlike you, I'm not recycling bad strategy!"

The next bombs he released took the form of a hundred paper-thin birds, which he let loose from the folds of his jacket, having prepared them beforehand. Sasuke channeled electricity through his entire body and ran directly into the swarm, unfazed. Karin gasped, recognizing the technique and the chakra behind it.

"Sasuke!" she screamed.

He faltered, having heard her warning, perhaps, but it was too late. The first wave of paper birds collided with his charged skin and exploded—into sweltering puffs of fire. Sasuke disappeared among the conflagration, and Karin covered her mouth in shock. Lightning beat Earth, but it had nothing on Fire. Before she could begin to fear the worst, however, the searing orange fire turned black, infected with a sinister chakra made only deeper and darker with the contrast. It ate away at Deidara's fire like a ravenous cancer.

"What the—"

Deidara ran toward the flames with seemingly no regard for his own safety, and Karin's heart leaped into her throat. Just as Amaterasu consumed the natural flames and began to part to reveal Sasuke's form within, Deidara punched the air and released a supercharged blast of explosive chakra that split the wind and the black flames alike. Karin's gifted eye watched as brilliant orange and yellow chakra burst from Deidara's fist and rammed the immediate area in front of him, cutting into the rocky earth as though it were mere sand and cleaving it deeply. The pressure hit Sasuke at almost point-blank range and buffeted him backward, dispersing the flames in the process. He tumbled and sank into the earth where Deidara's chakra carved out a long, shallow crater.

"Sasuke!" Karin shouted.

* * *

Deidara panted. That black fire had singed his knuckles when he took a risk and unleashed an explosive punch. The pain was off the charts, worse than any burn he'd ever gotten before, and the skin on the back of his hand continued to boil and fester, burning through the skin to the muscle underneath. Deidara gritted his teeth against the pain. Whatever. What mattered most was that he'd caught Sasuke by surprise and made him pay for it.

"Sasuke!"

Karin's desperation was not lost on Deidara, and he spared her a glance. She looked angry and distraught, perhaps torn between the two. He returned his attention to Sasuke.

"Get up so I can blast you," he bit out. "I'm not in the mood to drag this out, yeah."

Sasuke said something, but Deidara couldn't make it out. Frowning, he strained his hearing.

Laughter.

He was _laughing_.

"You're a joke," Sasuke said, pushing up on his elbows and wiping the blood from his chin. It had splattered there from a wound in his abdomen where Deidara's chakra had ripped open the flesh. "All this time and you're still hung up on some art show instead of getting the job done. This is why you'll never beat me."

Deidara's blood boiled at the insinuation. "You fucking prick. Don't you get it? It's different this time. Even _I _dunno how this'll turn out."

Sasuke pulled himself up and caught Deidara's eye. Any attempt at genjutsu would be worthless after all the specialized training Deidara had done, but Sasuke already knew that. He didn't even try. He didn't need to.

"Know your place, clown," Sasuke said, eyes widening.

The remains of the scattered black flames drew near, like magnetism, and gathered to Sasuke. He raised a hand, and they spiked and multiplied. Deidara took a defensive step backward, suddenly reminded of Sasori's iron sand and how he'd been able to manipulate it in a similar manner. But this was fire, one that was steadily eating away at his dominant hand, no less. Sasuke bared his teeth in a cruel smirk that bore nothing but a cold, indifferent schadenfreude as he no doubt imagined the course of this technique.

"Die!"

Deidara didn't know what to expect, but judging from the state of his hand, he wasn't keen on touching those boiling black stakes. His intuition proved true when two of the stakes hit the ground where he'd been standing not a half a breath before and melted the earth before his eyes. Cursing internally, Deidara was quick to channel his chakra and turn Sasuke's technique against him. Earth-infused chakra hit the ground and gathered around the molten rock left over from Sasuke's attack. Combined with moving rock slabs summoned from underground, Deidara changed the landscape with a hurricane of hard bedrock and magma that made a path straight for Sasuke.

* * *

Karin realized what Sasuke was doing, unleashing Enton: Kagutsuchi, and she began to fear for Deidara. It was one of Sasuke's best techniques, one he'd awakened to circumvent her death, and it always hit its mark and when it didn't, it left one hell of an aftertaste. Deidara was a fast learner and an intuitive fighter, however, and instinct guided his narrow escape. Years of fighting for his life against bigger, better, brawnier enemies also accounted for his ingenious counterattack: use the enemy's moves against him.

Karin had to jump to safety to avoid falling into the bowels of the earth when it split and spat up thick rock spires and magma to do Deidara's bidding. She lost sight of Deidara in the commotion, but his chakra signature was impossible to miss. He used the rocks as springboards to put aerial distance between Sasuke and himself while Sasuke pummeled the rocks with more concentrated Amaterasu spikes. Lava fell like rain wherever the techniques made contact, and Sasuke had to dodge to avoid it.

Above, Deidara played off the chaos and released a hail of bombs that descended like a meteor shower. It was all Sasuke to do to avoid getting hit, and he didn't get away unscathed.

Until he summoned Susano'o's torso and right arm.

Bombs exploded on contact with the sentient miasma, and Karin shivered despite herself. She could barely feel her fingers near Sasuke, and the malevolent haze of his energy made it hard to breath normally this close up. Moving fast, he raised his hand and Susano'o reached for the heavens. Reached for Deidara.

Karin reached, too.

"Sasuke!"

But he couldn't hear her that far down the crevasse. Giant, bony fingers snatched Deidara in midair despite the rock shield Deidara threw up before him. The fingers crushed the rock to dust and closed around Deidara. He grunted, but that was all he had time to do. Sasuke brought his arm down and with it, Deidara, who crashed to the ruined ground with a sickening _crack_. Sasuke smiled.

"Enton: Kagutsuchi."

Amaterasu bended to Sasuke's will and sharpened to wicked points, which flew at a grounded Deidara. Karin opened her mouth in a scream, her feet already running toward Sasuke to stop him, stall him, _anything at all_—

Deidara choked, eyes wide and disbelieving as a couple black spikes rammed him through the stomach and penetrated the other side. He hung on the edge, suspended at the cusp of gravity, the liminal state between flight and fall. Home.

They locked eyes for just a moment, that fleeting second before vertigo set in and she began to scramble back, reach for something to grab onto because falling now wasn't an option. She didn't have wings like he did. Deidara fell to his knees, and gravity did the rest. Smoke and blood leaked from the multiple holes in his middle, which dissolved more of him with each passing second. A ghost fire meant to burn the soul.

"So much for your art," Sasuke said, raising Susano'o's pale arm to deliver the finishing blow.

"_Death is freedom," _he'd told her. _"If you search deep down, you'll see that we all want to die, somehow, someday."_

_But what do _you_ need?_

Karin dug her nails into her temples as hard as she could. Maybe if she could get deep enough, there would be something there, something underneath all that red and spiky. Something to survive _for_.

"_Magnificently."_

Tears blurred her vision as she felt him fade and darken under Susano'o's shadow. On the edge of something, a state of emergency, Karin bit down on the vertigo and fell in after him.

"_For once in your life, just let go."_

"Stop!" she cried out.

Heat bloomed at her back and grew into great, golden, steel wings. Chains, a dozen at least, hurtled toward Susano'o and pierced its impenetrable hide. A sound like dying screams fizzled from it in thick waves where the chakra chains penetrated the ghostly flesh and wrapped around the bone, holding fast. The chains glowed with illegible runes and designs, a language Karin couldn't know but felt nonetheless. She reached for Sasuke and more chains looped around Susano'o's torso, holding it in place.

"Stop!" she shouted again through her tears.

Her chains tightened around Susano'o, forcing it to retreat back to the dark corner of his heart, the strongest part. The chains descended on Sasuke as they melted through his spirit summon's purple flesh and draped him like royalty, suspended to the monster's skeleton remains. Karin looked up at him, but he wasn't looking at her.

Groaning behind her drew her attention, and Karin gasped. Whirling, she raced to Deidara's side and hauled him up. He convulsed in pain when she moved him. Amaterasu was tearing him apart from the inside out, and he would die soon from blood loss. It was a miracle he hadn't passed out from the pain alone already.

"Deidara," she said through her tears. "Hey, look at me."

He could barely open his eyes, let alone look at her. Coughing, he splattered blood across her hand. Karin shook her head to clear it and dispel the tears, uncaring if he cause her weakness at this point.

"Come on, you have to bite me or you'll die, idiot."

Deidara's head lulled against her chest, like he was too drunk to remember how to be human, but he let his mouth hang open. Good enough. Karin raised her wrist to his mouth and forced him to bite down. The pain was sharp and fast, as normal, and she gritted her teeth against it, more concerned with how quickly he could stabilize.

_If _he could stabilize.

His wounds deteriorated by the second. Karin began to panic.

"No, come on, not like this. Come _on_, damnit!"

All those years spent giving her power away to those she would have rather seen dead, to those who would waste it, who had no idea what they had thanks to her. It had to count for something. She'd been able to help Sasuke. Surely, she could help Deidara, just this once, just a little, even if it meant interfering and hurting Sasuke because Sasuke's life wasn't worth Deidara's death—

_Suuuu..._

The burning rot Amaterasu had inflicted upon Deidara began to slow and recede, very gently, as Deidara took in more of her chakra. Karin's spirits lifted despite the drain on her reserves. Maybe she could save him, after all.

When he opened his eyes and caught sight of her, she smiled through her tears, unbidden. But the moment wasn't meant to last. He pulled away and tackled her to the side despite his still healing middle. Karin rolled, narrowly avoiding a dark spike of focused fire. Sasuke was attacking them directly. Startled, Karin watched as the ends of her chakra chains burned and popped under Amaterasu's intense heat, slowly extricating Sasuke from their shackles. Deidara slumped on the ground, overcome with pain and fatigue, but he managed to pull himself into a kneeling position.

"As soon as I get out of these, you're dead," Sasuke said to Deidara.

Deidara's breathing was labored, but he still managed a laugh. "Idiot. In death, I'll be free, yeah."

"Then by all means, _be free_!"

Karin's chakra chains dissolved and Sasuke fell to the ground, where he wasted no time in sending an entire legion of black fire spikes toward Deidara. Frantic, Karin tried to maneuver the chakra chains to intercept the attack.

"Sasuke, stop!"

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock and swept over her as she ran toward him, chains flying. This time he saw her, held her there, arrested the way he'd done that first day so many years ago through the blur of her poor sight. And a flicker of warmth, blue and timid, flashed through him like the first rays of dawn.

Gone in a heartbeat.

He opened his mouth as if to acknowledge her, but he never got the chance. A whistling sound preceded what amounted to a devastating explosion that detonated at Sasuke's feet, cutting him off from sight. The energy and smoke engulfed his attack, which fizzled to nothing. Karin faltered as renewed fear paralyzed her limbs just long enough to send her falling. The torn up earth scraped her hands, cutting the palms, but she didn't care as she scrambled to her feet.

"Sasuke!"

The smoke cleared and revealed more churned earth. Magma pooled in places where Enton: Kagutsuchi had fallen astray. She ignored all of this, however, in favor of the boy collapsed not far away. Blood leaked from the sides of his mouth and poured out of his chest and lower abdomen. Rocks piled up over his legs, pinning him in place. Karin covered her mouth and sank to her knees in shock.

"Karin," he said.

Tears streamed down her face carrying dirt and blood, Deidara's and hers. Sasuke had seen her cry once before when he'd stabbed her and left her for dead, and as then, he showed nothing of what he thought of her tears. Glowing Sharingan stared back up at her as he coughed.

"Goddamnit, Sasuke," she said, looking him over. "Goddamnit."

He said nothing as he tried to breathe normally, failing. Snapping to attention, Karin bared her wrist and held it out for him to take.

"Come on," she urged. "Hurry up and bite me."

He opened his mouth, but only a wet wheezing sound came out. He didn't try to sit up. Karin blinked rapidly to dispel the moisture gathering in her eyes.

"Karin," he repeated.

She shook her head. He said her name, but even now he looked right through her, the way one might look through total darkness, searching for just the faintest sliver of light and wandering forever.

"There's no time," she said, her voice steadier. "Bite me now or you'll die."

"I'm sorry," he said.

His words took the wind out of her, and she hesitated. Like a fucking novice. Furious at herself, she grabbed his bangs and tried to force him to bite down on her, but his jaw remained slack as his mouth filled with congealing blood.

"No, Sasuke, don't you dare. You don't get to die on me like this."

_Shlap, shlap, shlap._

His breathing began to sound more and more like gurgling. Karin let out an inhuman, guttural cry of frustration.

"Son of a bitch," she said. "I'm not ready to accept some half-assed apology! Don't you dare, Sasuke, don't you fucking dare!"

_Shalp...shlap..._

The chakra chains glowed at her back, framing her in a soft, golden light and lighting up the brilliant red of her hair.

_Shlap..._

She cupped his cheek and smeared some blood away, squinting through her tears to see him. His lips began to tremble, and he took another long, rattling breath.

He never released it.

Karin stared down at him, the silence deafening without the sound of his sickly breathing to fill it. She didn't shake or cry harder or scream his name. He couldn't hear her now. He hadn't heard her for so long until the very end. Those beautiful, red eyes that could do anything, save the world or destroy it, stared up at vast, blue sky, unseeing but omnipotent. She lifted thin, bleeding fingers to his face and draped them over the lids.

"You promised not to interfere."

Karin said nothing as Deidara watched her from a short distance away on hands and knees. The chakra she'd given him earlier had finished working its magic and sealed up the burning holes in him. Mottled scars wove angry webs across his torso, remnants of the demon flame that had tried to devour his soul. For the second time, he'd cheated death, this time by her hand.

"Yeah," she said, softly, staring down at Sasuke and closing her eyes to him. "But I couldn't help myself."

Deidara didn't approach, and he didn't push. He just waited. Deidara had always been good at waiting, at being patient.

He waited for her until the sun faded on the horizon and took all the light with it.

* * *

Yugao kneeled on the uneven ground and examined the warped landscape. Patches of molten rock bubbled under a strange, black fire that wouldn't extinguish and required nothing to fuel it but the rock itself. It sank steadily into the earth, creating a vast sea of Tartarean pits so dark and deep it gave her chills to gaze into them for long. Baki was a short distance away examining the surface ruin, a mess of craters and razed earth that was so out of place in the normal landscape, they could only have been the product of some calamitous event.

"This black fire," she called to Baki. "It's Amaterasu, one of Uchiha Sasuke's techniques. He used it against the five Kage at the summit in the Land of Iron not long ago."

Baki grunted. "So that's what you were after."

Yugao cast him a glance, noting the deep wrinkles in his brow as he brooded over the scene upon which they'd stumbled earlier this morning. Yugao had traced Deidara's and Karin's chakra all the way here, and given the thick pull of it on her senses even now, they had expended a considerable amount of it in a battle that had changed the face of the earth.

"You think Deidara was trying to find Sasuke this whole time?" Yugao asked.

"Ah. Sasuke was responsible for Deidara's death, or so everyone thought." He gestured at the ruin all around them. "He wanted revenge. How predictable."

Yugao nodded. It made sense, but there was only one problem. "Karin was Sasuke's teammate. It's strange that she would lead Deidara to him and risk his death."

"Didn't she end up in Konoha because Sasuke tried to kill her? Maybe she wanted him dead just as much as Deidara did."

Yugao frowned. The heat from Amaterasu was making her sweat, even so deep underground. "Maybe."

She didn't believe it, though. Karin's guards had reported that she was infatuated with Sasuke, even carried a picture of him with her. Love was not so easily shaken.

"So, what happened to them?" Baki asked.

"It's difficult to say. I don't think anyone would have survived whatever happened here. There's no indication that anyone made it out. The trail goes cold here."

"Then perhaps this time, they really did end up killing each other."

Yugao said nothing as she thought of Karin, so young and chasing after the man she loved with Deidara, someone who wanted him dead enough to take them both down. It didn't make sense. Why would two people with seemingly opposing goals work together only to end up here, a burning wasteland where no living thing would ever thrive again?

"What happened to you?" she asked, her gaze far away.

Baki shifted and rubbed the back of his neck with a rag to mop up the sweat accumulating there. "Maybe they found a way to work together."

Yugao spared him a glance and bit her lip. They hadn't said much to each other since her outburst at the Akatsuki cave, and it took a toll on their mission. She slept less, grew more paranoid (what if Akatsuki found out about their intentions at the cave and were sending assassins after them?). And most of all, she nursed a growing sense of guilt.

Extending her senses one last time, Yugao felt the remains of whatever horror had happened here, something powerful enough to bring two enemies together in the end. Perhaps she'd never know what really happened here, but neither would anyone else.

"I forgive you," she said as she gazed out over the scene.

Baki stared at her, aghast, but he didn't interrupt her. Yugao took a deep breath and closed her eyes, face upturned toward the sky. He wondered what she saw as a small, sad smile tugged at her lips and the warm summer wind whipped through her violet hair, but decided he would never know.

* * *

Karin hadn't said a word the entire time aboard Deidara's clay bird as they soared east over the open ocean. Her hand on his back, concealing his chakra and hers, was cold and clammy. She barely saw the incredible seascape passing beneath her, a pod of whales breaking the surface to snatch some air, gulls and dive bombers plunging underwater to gobble up a cornered school of fish. All she saw was Sasuke's face as he let go and gazed at the sky with his brother's eyes.

The smile he wore at the sight of things precious, beyond this world, beyond her. Serene.

"_I'm sorry."_

But Karin didn't cry anymore once he was gone. It would have done no one any good, least of all her. Deidara touched them down somewhere in the Land of Water and helped her down, but said nothing. Karin finally took a moment to look around and noticed they were on a beach, deserted from the looks of it, though she could sense people a short distance away, probably a small settlement. The ends of her hair curled in the humidity. There was a slight chill in the air now that the sun was close to setting, and she hugged her arms about her as she gazed out over the lapping waves.

"I'm not sorry he's dead."

Deidara stood a short ways behind her but made no move to approach. She could feel the weight of his icy gaze on her back and resisted the urge to shiver. Of course he wasn't sorry. This had been his goal all along. She expected nothing else.

"But I'm sorry I hurt you, yeah."

Karin's shoulders were taut with tension she hadn't even noticed until just now. Try as she might, she couldn't detect the lie in his words. The irony was hilarious.

"He said the same thing to me just before, you know," she said. She chuckled bitterly. "Back when I was still in Konoha, I told myself I'd never forgive him for what he did to me. It all seems so cliché now."

Deidara said nothing as he waited for her to finish her thought.

"I did love him," she said softly. "I've never told anyone that out loud."

"You can hate me. I can live with that."

Karin turned to face him, eyes tired and a little bloodshot from the crying and the salt in the air. "I don't hate you. I never did."

Deidara advanced two steps, the confusion on his face giving way to frustration. "Why? I killed the man you love right after you saved _me_ when you coulda saved _him. _So go ahead, scream at me, punch me, whatever you want. I can take it."

There was a part of her that wanted to indulge him. It was often easier to indulge Deidara than to fight him, in her experience, but this was not one of those times. She just watched him, unblinking.

"You didn't kill him," she said. "The Sasuke I knew... He died a long time ago. The Sasuke I knew wouldn't have... I just didn't want to accept it. I thought maybe, if I could see him again, I could do something." She thought of the day Sasuke found out the truth about Itachi and broke down crying, a useless endeavor, but even Sasuke had the great misfortune of being born human. She, Suigetsu, and Juugo had let him be, knowing there was nothing they could do. "But I couldn't, none of us could. Sasuke killed the one person who could've helped him, but I don't know if he would've helped. I just don't know."

All this time she'd coached herself on how she would deal with the outcome of Sasuke and Deidara's inevitable confrontation. She was ready to turn on Deidara as soon as they found Sasuke, ready to forswear their temporary allegiance, put it all behind her for the one person who did matter. But she couldn't. Watching Deidara fall as Sasuke's hatred pierced him and tore him apart was too much. She knew what it felt like, and it was a fate she couldn't wish on anyone.

"I thought about what you said, y'know," Deidara said. "About seein' the world. Thought I'd give it a shot. Death was exciting the first time, but now it's just kinda been there, done that, yeah."

"But what about Madara? Don't you... I thought you'd want revenge on him."

Deidara shrugged. "Revenge isn't all it's cracked up to be."

She thought of Sasuke's last, tired smile, a shadow of the one he'd given her when they met so many years ago and this time not meant for her.

"_Was it worth it?" _she'd asked him that night at the docks as the tears dried on his face.

"_If I hadn't killed him, I wouldn't know the truth."_

He never did answer her question, but he didn't have to.

"Deidara," Karin said, swallowing the hitch in her throat. "Is it possible? To really be free."

He walked past her into the water up to his calves. Waves lapped at his feet, darkening as the sun dipped halfway below the horizon. For miles as far as the eye could see, the dying rays lit up the seascape in deep purple and pink and yellow hues.

"I dunno," he admitted. "But I wanna find out, yeah."

Karin had never given much thought to destiny or fate or the bells of time that tolled the deaths of almost everyone she'd ever encountered. It had never concerned her, who was so concerned only with her own survival.

But what was the point of living without something to live for?

"What about you?" he asked, looking back at her over his shoulder. "What do you want?"

Maybe somewhere along the way, destiny had given some thought to her.

"I want time. With you."

Deidara's jaw slackened just enough to notice. Even in the encroaching darkness, the blue in his eyes shined with a light all its own. There was no warmth there, but there was something just as worth having.

"You know I'm a mess, Red. The closer you come, the greater the risk. I don't play by the rules, yeah."

Karin ventured into the water and crossed her arms as she watched the sunset. This wouldn't be easy. Losing Sasuke had never been easy, and she wasn't sure if she would ever get over it. But from the start, Sasuke had never been in the game to survive, only to take down as many of his enemies with him as he could.

Deidara was so reckless that Karin often found it hard to believe he was still alive. And yet, here he was at the center, a place where not even death could trample him. Fearless. She wondered why she hadn't understood it before: if he could bear to stand at the epicenter of total ruin and decay, he could go anywhere. The world waited.

She leaned her weight against his side, eyes fixed on the wandering sun across the sea as it finally let go of the day. "Then I'll keep us both alive. I'm good at that."

Deidara's breath hitched as he angled his face toward the crown of her hair and breathed her in. He let his arm come to rest at her waist to hold her up. The dark waves beat against them, pushing them back to shore, but they stood together against the tide, lingering as long as they liked.

* * *

_I couldn't help that tiny SasoSaku parallel in there, you know me. Thanks for reading what turned out to be my longest one-shot to date, and one of the most fun to write. Please be sure review if you can spare the time, as it is my only means of knowing whether you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed dreaming it up. Until next time!_


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